Method of determining the sensitivity of cancer cells to EGFR inhibitors including cetuximab, panitumumab and erlotinib

摘要

A method of determining if a cancer patient is amenable to treatment with EGFR inhibitors including but not limited to cetuximab, panitumumab or erlotinib by the following steps:(a) Obtaining cells from a cancer patient's tumor;(b) Determining if said cells contain a biomarker that is predictive of a therapeutic response to response to treatment with cetuximab or panitumumab. The biomarker is the mutation status of the PIK3CA gene and the expression status of the PTEN gene. Tumors that harbor activating mutations in Exon 9 and 20 of the PIK3CA gene or which show loss of PTEN protein expression will be considered not likely to benefit from EGFR targeting therapies.