Today in France, about 5000 new people with malignant primary brain tumour are diagnosed each year. The Institut du Cerveau – ICM teams’ ambition is to develop personalised therapies based on the patients’ tumour genetic profile.
Through the Gliotex experimental therapy platform (supported by the ARC Foundation for Cancer Research and by the Brain Tumours Research Association), co-directed by Ahmed Idbaih and Jean-Yves Delattre, specific therapies are implemented according to the tumour mutation profile. In this context, Marc Sanson’s team has tested an inhibitor targeting the oncogene*, MDM2, which leads to gene amplification in some tumours. Researchers have demonstrated that cells with this mutation respond electively to this inhibitor.
These results are very encouraging for the development of personalised therapies in human and give hope for the establishment of a phase 1 clinical trial.
Preclinical efficacy of the MDM2 inhibitor RG7112 in MDM2 amplified and TP53 wild-type glioblastomas. Verreault M. Clin Cancer Res. 2015 Oct 19.
*Oncogene : a normal gene whose alteration or overexpression favours the onset of cancer.