2013 Free to Breathe Young Investigator Research Grant
Helena Yu, MD
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Research Project:
A New Way to Prevent Drug Resistance
Summary:
Dr. Yu is exploring a new way to get the most out of the targeted therapy erlotinib (Tarceva®), which eventually stops working for most patients. The most common reason tumors begin to grow after erlotinib therapy is that they acquire a mutation called EGFR T790M. Dr. Yu’s team has done laboratory work that suggests that alternating high and low dose erlotinib can make the drug work longer by preventing the T790M mutation from appearing. With support from Free to Breathe, she will now start a clinical trial to find the right erlotinib dosing schedule for patients that will optimize the drug’s effects, delay the appearance of the T790M mutation and ultimately discover whether this approach improves survival.