Cancer-causing mutation discovered in 1982 finally target of clinical trials
Tuesday, December 30, 2014 - 18:30
in Health & Medicine
A recent article describes clinical trials that match drugs to long-overlooked oncogene, TRK, offering targeted treatment options for cancers that harbor these gene abnormalities. The TRK family of genes, including NTRK1, NTRK2 and NTRK3 are important in the developing nervous system. In the womb, these genes and the proteins they encode are essential for the growth and survival of new neurons. After birth, these genes are unneeded in many tissues and so are programmed to go dormant, however, experts have learned that some cancers wake them up.