Abstract
The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is frequently activated in human cancer and aberrant activation promotes transformation. Major efforts are currently being aimed at pharmacologically targeting the pathway for cancer therapy. Early results have yielded more limited success than has been seen for other selective inhibitors of mutant oncoprotein drivers. In this chapter, we review the biological reasons that may account for such intrinsic and acquired resistance to PI3K-targeted therapy. Mechanisms of resistance commonly seen in models include: (1) relief of negative feedback regulatory programs resulting in induction of upstream pathway signaling, which counteracts drug action and attenuates efficacy and (2) coincident activation of alternate growth signaling pathways. The understanding of how tumors with oncogenic PI3K pathway activation circumvent pharmacologic inhibition suggests that combination therapy will be necessary in many contexts in order to see durable responses. Indeed, more recent clinical efforts testing PI3K-directed therapy have been designed under the assumption that up front combination therapy will be necessary for efficacy. These clinical trials are increasingly employing state-of-the-art correlative analyses including next generation sequencing to determine predictors of sensitivity. Clinical data paired with these correlative analyses will be indispensible in determining the optimal agents, combinations, and genotypes to treat.
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Shah, P.D., Chandarlapaty, S. (2016). Resistance to PI3K Pathway Inhibition. In: Dey, N., De, P., Leyland-Jones, B. (eds) PI3K-mTOR in Cancer and Cancer Therapy. Cancer Drug Discovery and Development. Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34211-5_5
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