Antitumor activity of HM781-36B, a highly effective pan-HER inhibitor in erlotinib-resistant NSCLC and other EGFR-dependent cancer models

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family of receptor tyrosine kinases has been implicated in a variety of cancers. In particular, activating mutations such as the L858R point mutation in exon 21 and the small in-frame deletions in exon 19 of the EGFR tyrosine kinase domain are correlated with sensitivity to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Clinical treatment of patients is limited by the development of drug resistance resulting mainly from a gatekeeper mutation (T790M). In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic potential of a novel, irreversible pan-HER inhibitor, HM781-36B. The results from this study show that HM781-36B is a potent inhibitor of EGFR in vitro, including the EGFR-acquired resistance mutation (T790M), as well as HER-2 and HER-4, compared with other EGFR tyrosine kinases inhibitors (erlotinib, lapatinib and BIBW2992). HM781-36B treatment of EGFR DelE746_A750-harboring erlotinib-sensitive HCC827 and EGFR L858R/T790M-harboring erlotinib-resistant NCI-H1975 NSCLC cells results in the inhibition of EGFR phosphorylation and the subsequent deactivation of downstream signaling proteins. Additionally, HM781-36B shows an excellent efficacy in a variety of EGFR- and HER-2-dependent tumor xenograft models, including erlotinib-sensitive HCC827 NSCLC cells, erlotinib-resistant NCI-H1975 NSCLC cells, HER-2 overexpressing Calu-3 NSCLC cells, NCI-N87 gastric cancer cells, SK-Ov3 ovarian cancer cells and EGFR-overexpressing A431 epidermoid carcinoma cancer cells. On the basis of these preclinical results, HM781-36B is the most potent pan-HER inhibitor, which will be advantageous for the treatment of patients with NSCLC including clinical limitation caused by acquired mutation (EGFR T790M), breast cancer and gastric cancer.