Oral Presentation 30th Lorne Cancer Conference 2018

Harnessing kinase dependent and independent functions of RAF kinases to treat RAS mutant tumors (#13)

Shiva Malek 1
  1. Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, United States

Despite decades of extensive drug discovery efforts, there are currently no targeted therapies approved to treat KRAS mutant cancers.  In this talk I will highlight new opportunities for targeting KRAS mutant tumors through inhibition of MAPK signaling with conformation-specific kinase inhibitors. The role of RAF dimerization and interaction with RAS is central to this strategy.  Further I will discuss how kinase dependent and independent functions of RAF isoforms, particularly CRAF, are important in RAS-driven tumors.  Mechanistic studies shed light on the role of CRAF kinase independent functions, highlighting novel drugging strategies to treating RAS mutant tumors that are also CRAF dependent.