New study shows SHP2 inhibition overcomes multiple therapeutic-resistance mechanisms in lung cancer

New preclinical research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. affiliate Navire Pharma, Inc., finds that the novel SHP2 inhibitor IACS-13909 is able to overcome multiple therapeutic-resistance mechanisms in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), suggesting a possible new approach to treating cancers that have developed resistance to the targeted EGFR inhibitor osimertinib.

The data is published today in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. IACS-13909, is a potent and selective allosteric SHP2 (Src homology 2 domain-containing phosphatase) inhibitor developed through collaboration between Navire and MD Anderson’s Therapeutics Discovery division. Based on these data, Navire plans to launch a clinical study of SHP2 inhibitors by the end of 2020 at multiple US sites, including MD Anderson.

“Our findings show that IACS-13909 is capable of suppressing tumor cell proliferation in vitro and causing tumor regression in vivo for lung cancers harboring a variety of activated kinases as the oncogenic driver,” said lead author Yuting Sun, Ph.D., co-project lead and senior research scientist with TRACTION at MD Anderson. “These data suggest that targeting SHP2 could provide a viable strategy for overcoming osimertinib resistance occurring through a variety of mechanisms.”  Read more.