Article - Early phase clinical trial shows promise

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When Méndez and Kemp applied the functional genomics technique to head and neck cancer cells with mutations in a gene known as p53, which is mutated in approximately two-thirds of head and neck cancers, their screen identified a gene known as Wee1 as a potential Achilles heel for these tumor cells. Luckily for the researchers, there was already a drug — AZD1775 — that targets Wee1.

When Méndez and Chow designed the clinical trial, they allowed patients with or without mutations in p53 to join — additional preclinical data from Méndez’s team had found that the drug also seemed to work on cancerous cells without a p53 mutation but where the cancer was triggered by HPV infection, a cancer-linked virus that inactivates p53 in a different way.

Indeed, three of the trial participants who had a good response to the drug did not carry p53 mutations in their tumors but were HPV-positive.

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