Dr. Toms on Targeting MEK as a Treatment Strategy for CNS Metastasis

Steven A. Toms, MD, director, neurosurgery, Geisinger Health System, discusses how targeting MEK can be an effective treatment strategy for CNS metastases.

Toms says he and his colleagues have been taking primary metastases cell lines out of bone and brain and analyzing them for genetic and epigenetic changes. The study showed that the MEK pathway was altered in a number of brain metastases, Toms says. These pathways are commonly deregulated in a wide variety of cancers.

Toms says this discovery may help researchers select specific targeted therapies to work on for treatment for these metastases. However, researchers might find that the cancer may be able to bypass the one pathway that is being inhibited. In order to combat that, Toms says, targeted therapies may need to be used in combination when targeting the MEK pathway.

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