Dasatinib in Advanced Squamous Cell Lung Cancer

Dasatinib is a drug that has been shown to stop some cancer cells from growing. This drug has been used in treatment for other types of cancer and information from other research studies suggests that dasatinib may help to stop squamous cell lung cancer from growing, especially in individuals whose tumor has a mutation in the DDR2 gene. Advanced squamous cell lung cancer (SqCC) carries a poor prognosis and new therapeutic targets are needed. Several studies have examined dasatinib in NSCLC; these report significant toxicities, but also responses in patients found to harbor mutations in DDR2 or BRAF. An open-label phase II trial with dasatinib was carried out to determine the response rates in patients with SqCC who had previously failed standard chemotherapy and to correlate responses with patient genotype.