Abstract 669: BGB-283 effectively enhances MEK inhibitor induced tumor suppression in RAS mutant cancers

Abstract Mutation in K-RAS, which drives constitutive activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, is one of the most frequent genetic alterations in human cancers. Pharmacological targeting RAS mutants directly is extremely challenging and targeted inhibition of K-RAS downstream effector MEK has shown limited clinical activity in suppressing the progression of K-RAS mutant tumors. The reduced sensitivity of K-RAS-mutated cancer cells to MEK inhibitors (MEKi) is associated with feedback phosphorylation of MEK and rebound of phosphorylated ERK levels after prolonged treatment. A synthetic lethal screen provided the rational of targeting both RAF1 and MEK in K-RAS mutated cancers. In this study, we investigated whether combining BGB-283, a potent inhibitor to RAF dimers, and a series of MEKi could achieve better therapeutic effect of the latter. We confirmed that selumetinib (AZD6244) induced strong MEK phosphorylation in K-RAS mutated cancer cells. Either knockdown of B-RAF/C-RAF or addition of BGB-283 in the presence of selumetinib potently inhibited RAF-dependent MEK phosphorylation and led to sustained inhibition of ERK activity. Furthermore, BGB-283 and selumetinib showed synergistic effect in inhibiting proliferation of several non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and colorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines harboring RAS mutations. In vivo, combined dosing of BGB-283 and AZD6244 also exhibited enhanced antitumor activity in K-RAS mutant NSCLC and CRC xenograft models compared to monotherapies. Pharmacodynamic (PD) analysis revealed improved inhibition of ERK phosphorylation in dually treated tumors. Together, these findings suggested that combining RAF dimer inhibitor BGB-283 and MEKi could be a promising strategy in treating RAS mutated cancers. Citation Format: Xi Yuan, Zhiyu Tang, Rong Du, Shing-Hu Cheung, Jing Wei, Yuan Zhao, Yunguang Du, Rui Hao, Xiaoxia Hu, Wenfeng Gong, Yong Liu, Yajuan Gao, Min Wei, Changyou Zhou, Lai Wang, Lusong Luo. BGB-283 effectively enhances MEK inhibitor induced tumor suppression in RAS mutant cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 669. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-669