Seminari VHIR - Dr. Marcos Malumbres "Targeting classical and novel CDKs for cancer therapy"

Dr. Marcos Malumbres - Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) Madrid

"Targeting classical and novel CDKs for cancer therapy"

Inhibition of the cell cycle kinases CDK4 and CDK6 is becoming a standard treatment in advanced breast cancer, and their effect in other tumor types is currently under preclinical and clinical scrutiny. Since CDK4/6 inhibitors display a limited effect in monotherapy, future applications very likely will benefit from finding effective combinations. DNA damaging or antimitotic drugs are the standard of care in multiple malignancies; however, they are not expected to cooperate with CDK4/6 inhibitors as the latter arrest cells at the G1 phase of the cell cycle, thus preventing the cytotoxic effect of these classical chemotherapeutic agents in S-phase or mitosis. We will discuss recent data supporting the possibilities of combining CDK inhibitors with classical chemotherapy in several tumor types including breast or pancreatic cancer. We will also review the possibilities for preventing resistance to these drugs by targeting other CDK family members, or new data suggesting a significant therapeutic value for less-studied CDKs in lung or liver cancer.

Host: Biomedical Research in Urology, anna.santamaria@vhir.org