Dr. Piperdi Discusses RICTOR Amplification in Lung Cancer

Bilal Piperdi, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Department of Medicine (Oncology), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, director, Lung Cancer Program, Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care, discusses an analysis presented at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting that looked at RICTOR amplification to define a subset of patients with lung cancer.

An 18-year-old patient who never smoked was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Piperdi says the patient was treated with traditional chemotherapy, but still had progressive NSCLC. Next-generation sequencing showed RICTOR amplification in this patient.

As RICTOR amplification has been observed in other cancers, Piperdi and his colleagues set out to analyze 2 large data sets. Data sets from the National Cancer Institute and Foundation Medicine showed that 7-8% of NSCLCs have RICTOR amplification.

In doing preclinical work, it was demonstrated with preliminary data that pan-mTOR inhibitors can be active in RICTOR-amplified tumors. As a proof of concept, the index patient was treated on a phase I clinical trial with a dual mTOR1/2 inhibitor (CC223) and has had stable disease for 11-12 months, Piperdi says. Piperdi hopes RICTOR amplification will define a new susbset of patients with lung cancer who could benefit from mTOR1/2 inhibition.