2015 Annual Meeting on Women's Cancer®

March 26 - 31, 2015

Description: The clinical success of molecularly targeted therapies such as imatinib for chronic myeloid leukemia sparked a revolution in cancer drug development as well as global efforts to define the landscape of genomic alterations across all cancers. Today we live in a world with a near complete understanding of all cancer gene mutations, giving us an unprecedented opportunity to leverage this knowledge to improve treatment outcomes. Despite the many remarkable successes over the past 15 years, drug resistance remains a compelling challenge. In this lecture Dr. Sawyers will review lessons learned from the clinical experience of ABL kinase inhibitors in chronic myeloid leukemia, with an emphasis on how a structural understanding of the ABL kinase bound to imatinib pointed the way to next generation ABL inhibitors that can overcome resistance. He will also discuss our recent progress in developing novel antiandrogens for the treatment of late stage prostate cancer, as an additional example of how cancer genomics can guide successful drug development. Both examples point to the need for combination therapies, selected on the basis of molecular insights into acquired resistance, in order to achieve long term disease control or cures.