Abstract B20: Combination of Ganoderma lucidum extract and erlotinib decreases IBC progression

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare, and the most lethal and aggressive type of advanced breast cancer. Despite many efforts to increase IBC treatment efficacy, prognosis of this cancer is very grim. IBC cells and tissues overexpress epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and this is a poor prognostic factor in this disease. Erlotinib is a small oral EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor that causes reverse inhibition of the EGFR tyrosine kinase domain. However, Erlotinib resistance can reduce the efficacy of this treatment. Our published results demonstrate that the extract of medicinal mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum (GLE), selectively decreases IBC cell viability. Our hypothesis is that the combination of GLE and Erlotinib will be more effective than their treatments alone, in reducing cancer cell viability and tumor progression via the EGFR signaling pathway. The IBC cell line, SUM149, was treated with Erlotinib and GLE at different concentrations for 72hrs to examine cell viability. To determine tumor progression, severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice were injected with SUM149 cells and then treated with Erlotinib alone, and in combination with GLE for 13 weeks. The expression of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1/2 and serine/threonine-specific protein kinase (AKT) of tumor samples were studied by Western Blot analysis, as the interaction of these signaling pathways are important in drug resistance effects and tumorigenesis. Our results show that SUM149 c...
Source: Molecular Cancer Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Targeted Therapies: Poster Presentations - Proffered Abstracts Source Type: research