Selectively Targeting Mutant BRAF in Thyroid Cancer

摘要

Whether selective BRAF inhibitors will eventually find a role in thyroid cancer therapy is difficult to predict. An appealing feature of these findings is the striking selectivity for the mutant form of BRAF. Increasingly, a patient’s tumor genotype will come to influence therapeutic de- cision making in advanced thyroid cancer. Lessons learned from the highly selective clinical activity of drugs such as trastuzamab (Herceptin) in patients with Her2/Neu amplified breast cancer, and erlotinib (Tarceva) in epidermal growth factor receptor mutated lung cancer will help to inform clinical trials design in thyroid can- cer. Indeed, it seems quite apparent from this study and recent targeted therapy clinical trials that future trials of BRAF inhibitors in thyroid cancer should be focused on the patient population with BRAF mutations, rather than a broader population including patients with other ras pathway mutations.