Ignite Proteomics announces publication of study on protein activation analysis

Ignite Proteomics announces the publication of a significant study in the British Journal of Cancer titled “Functional activation of the AKT-mTOR signalling axis in a real-world metastatic breast cancer cohort”. This research underscores the critical importance of measuring functional protein activation within the AKT-mTOR signaling pathway to accurately predict patient responses to targeted cancer therapies. The study, coordinated by Perthera and a patient-centered initiative sponsored by the Side-Out Foundation, reveals that direct assessment of protein activation provides a superior method for predicting therapeutic outcomes compared to genomic profiling alone. The mutation status of tumors, determined through genomic analyses, did not correlate with protein activation levels and failed to adequately predict patient response. Key Findings: Protein Activation Predicts Therapeutic Response: Patients exhibiting functional activation of the AKT-mTOR signaling axis demonstrated significantly worse response to standard of care first-line treatment with a CDK4/6 inhibitor. Genomic Alterations Do Not Reflect Protein Activity: The study found no correlation between genomic mutations in the PIK3CA, PTEN, or AKT genes and the activation status of corresponding proteins in the pathway. Enhanced Clinical Outcomes Through Proteomic Profiling: Utilizing protein activation analysis allowed for more precise identification of patients likely to benefit from endocrine therapy in combination with a CDK4/6 inhibitor.