LRG members Jennifer & Owen Moore give their perspective on participating in the Phase I BLU-285 trial at OSHU with Dr. Michael Heinrich. After three other drug treatment lines and faced with several growing tumors, the BLU-285 (avapritinib) trial was Owen’s best option.
In a new article from the NCI concerning the January 2020 approval of Ayvakit, (produced by Blueprint Medicines) the Life Raft Group is acknowledged in the section, “Capturing the Patient Experience.” We are proud to have played a role in supporting the research involved in bringing a new treatment to market for GIST patients.
The Life Raft Group is pleased to announce the release of the ninth issue of The GIST Cancer Journal, the official journal of the Life Raft Group. The journal is intended to serve as [...]
The Life Raft Group is pleased to announce the release of the eighth issue of The GIST Cancer Journal, the official journal of the Life Raft Group and the first academic journal devoted solely [...]
Blueprint Medicines presented new preclinical data on its drug candidate, BLU-285, and its potential value in treatment-resistant GIST and on novel cancer drug targets at the AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) Annual Meeting [...]
A new study published by Clinical Cancer Research found that crenolanib is a potent inhibitor of imatinib resistant PDGFRA kinases associated with Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor, including the PDGFRA D842V mutation found in about 5 percent [...]
The Gleevec for GIST story continues to remain one of the most successful stories in oncology. What could be better than a drug that works in 85 percent of patients? As great as this story is, there is room for improvement. Half of the patients on Gleevec for metastatic disease will progress in the first two years and 15 percent of patients are resistant to Gleevec right away or within the first six months of treatment. AROG Pharmaceuticals may have an option for a few of those patients.
UPDATE - January 6th, 2011 by Jerry Call, LRG Science Coordinator The first ever clinical trial specifically for the PDGFRA D842V mutation has been announced by Arog pharmaceuticals. The phase II trial is scheduled [...]
1. Agaram NP, Besmer P, Wong GC, Guo T, Socci ND, Maki RG, DeSantis D, Brennan MF, Singer S, DeMatteo RP, Antonescu CR: Pathologic and Molecular Heterogeneity in Imatinib-Stable or Imatinib-Responsive Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors. [...]
This is part one of a two-part series on “KIT and PDGFRA kinase mutations in GIST: from A to Z”. In this newsletter, Dr. Heinrich will provide a background on the role of kinase mutations in GIST, focusing largely on the biological and clinical implications of these mutations. In part two (which will be featured in the July 2007 edition of the newsletter, following the special “Five-year anniversary” edition),
