Heavily pretreated patients with mutations in PIK3CA and aberrations in PTEN respond to drugs that inhibit PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway

Cancer patients with mutations or variations in PIK3CA and PTEN, who have failed to respond to several, standard treatments, respond significantly better to anti-cancer drugs that inhibit PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, according to research presented at the 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Dublin, Ireland (6-9 November 2012). Dr Filip Janku, assistant professor in Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA, reported at plenary session that mutations in PIK3CA and aberrations (loss of function or mutation) in PTEN were present in a wide range of tumors and were thought to be involved in the development of cancer. These two genes act via a pathway known as the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, and so inhibiting the pathway could improve the patients' response to treatment. Read more here.