ould be very broadly applicable, Yaffe says. The researchers found similar boosts in tumor killing by pretreating HER2-positive breast cancer cells with a HER2 inhibitor, followed by a DNA-damaging drug. They also saw good results with erlotinib and doxorubicin in some types of lung cancer.
“The drugs are going to be different for each cancer case, but the concept that time-staggered inhibition will be a strong determinant of efficacy has been universally true. It’s just a matter of finding the right combinations,” Lee says.
The findings also highlight the importance of systems biology in studying cancer, Yaffe says. “Our findings illustrate how systems engineering approaches to cell signaling can have large potential impact on disease treatment,” he says.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health Integrative Cancer Biology Program and the Department of Defense.
Image: Neil Ganem, Michael Yaffe and David Pellman