Closing In On The Elusive

CLOSING IN ON THE ELUSIVEINSIDE THE RACE AGAINST CANCER Dr. Gregory Friberg is a former clinician who went into oncology when cancer was considered, he says, “a death sentence.” Today, as vice president for global development at Amgen, Friberg is part of a team closing in on once unthinkable gains against cancer, halting tumors long seen as perfectly weaponized against the human body. “I pinch myself almost every day,” says P.K. Morrow, vice president of Global Development at Amgen, “because I can’t believe we are sitting where we are, truly on the cusp of a potential cure for certain cancers.” The subject of almost four decades of research, the RAS gene family are the most frequently mutated oncogenes in human cancers.1, 2 Within this family, KRAS is the most prevalent variant and is particularly common in solid tumors.2 A specific mutation known as KRAS G12C is found in approximately 13% of non-small cell lung cancers, three to five percent of colorectal cancers and one to two percent of numerous other solid tumors.3 Although scientists have understood for decades how KRAS causes cancer, they’ve been unable to do anything about it. Morrow recalls attending a conference only two years ago at