Abstract 621: High-dose gefitinib overcomes the resistance to gefitinib related to hepatocyte growth factor

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Abstract Molecular targeted agents are being a mainstay in non-small cell lung cancer. Dramatic responses to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) -tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) are observed in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially with EGFR mutation. Different from cytotoxic agents, it remains unclear whether EGFR-TKI exerts its anti-tumor effect dose-dependently. Gefitinib could not show survival benefit in previously treated unselected patients with NSCLC in a randomized phase III trial, whereas erlotinib did. The difference is considered resulting from the fact that erlotinib was dosed at its maximum-tolerated dose (MTD), while gefitinib was dosed at about one third of its MTD. To investigate the dose-dependency of gefitinib in the cells harboring mutated EGFR, we compared two doses of gefitinib (15 or 50 mg/kg) using PC-9 (adenocarcinoma of lung) xenografts. Both doses of gefitinib reduced tumors. However, the tumors regrew in the low-dose group after several weeks of treatment, whereas did not in the high dose group. This result indicates that gefitinib might have the dose-dependency in the tumors harboring mutated EGFR. We resected tumors at 10 weeks after gefitinib treatment. The removed tumors did not acquired T790M mutation and MET amplification. Interestingly, the cells (PC-9/RX) that were derived from the xenograft tumors treated with low-dose gefitinib remained the sensitivity to gefitinib. Thus, we investigated hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) as the environmental factor. Tumor tissues treated with gefitinib were positively stained with anti-mouse HGF. Mouse HGF mRNA and protein expression in the tumor tissues treated with gefitinib were significantly high when compared to those treated with vehicle alone, and similar results were obtained by ELISA. We confirmed that mouse HGF induced resistance to gefitinib in an ex vivo experiment. To elucidate the role of HGF in vivo, PC-9 xenografts were treated with gefitinib in combination with rabbit anti-HGF antibody. The combination of gefitinib with anti-HGF antibody inhibited tumor growth partially compared with the low-dose gefitinib alone. Taken together, HGF might induce resistance to low-dose of gefitinib treatment in an in vivo xenograft model before the tumor cells themselves acquired the resistant genetic changes. In conclusion, higher-dose of gefitinib might prevent resistance to gefitinib related to HGF and produce longer response duration. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 621.