Study identifies a targetable lung cancer mutation

Scientists from MedGenome, Bangalore, India in collaboration with oncologists from Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India and scientists at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, South San Francisco, Calif., USA, report in Cancer Cell the identification of a treatable mutation linked to lung cancer. A mutation in HER2, a gene normally amplified in breast cancer, was found mutated in a familial lung cancer patient. Based on the mutation profile the patient was treated with an approved HER2 inhibitor that normally is used for treating breast cancer. The study also reports several additional actionable activating HER2 mutations in multiple cancers in the same region of HER2 as observed in the lung cancer patient.