Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma and imatinib – pro
Ther eview article by Chae et al writes: “Given that c-kit overexpression is common in ACC cells, imatinib and dasatinib were investigated in several studies. One study added cisplatin after imatinib monotherapy and produced a better objective response rate (ORR, 3 of 28, 11% of the patients achieved PR) [53]. Imatinib or dasatinib monotherapy showed no objective responses . Among the patients enrolled in five clinical trials, 52 patients had SD, which consisted of 53% of total patients (52 of 98). In particular, a single-arm, planned two-stage, phase II trial by Hotte et al., evaluated imatinib treatment in ACC patients expressing c-kit]. However, the study was stopped after the first stage after no objective responses were observed. The authors hypothesized that these patients may upregulate wild-type c-kit and not genetically altered c-kit. While patients with exon 9 or 11 c-kit mutations responded well to imatinib in gastrointestinal stromal tumors, similar mutations were not present in ACC patients with most upregulating wild type c-kit. Therefore, it appears that c-kit does not play a critical role in ACC tumorigenesis despite its overexpression.”
NCCN Head and Neck Cancer 2020
Chae YK, Chung SY, Davis AA, et al. Adenoid cystic carcinoma: current therapy and potential therapeutic advances based on genomic profiling. Oncotarget. 2015;6(35):37117-37134. doi:10.18632/oncotarget.5076
Mesolella M, Luce A, Marino A, Caraglia M, Ricciardiello F, Iengo M. Treatment of c-kit positive adenoid cystic carcinoma of the tongue: A case report. Oncol Lett. 2014;8(1):309-312. doi:10.3892/ol.2014.2075