Oncology

Oncology focuses on discovering mechanism-based therapeutics targeted to the right patients with the ultimate goal of improving the survival and quality of life of cancer patients around the world.

Novartis has a long-standing commitment to oncology research and has a very robust research portfolio. Therapeutic approaches include small molecule kinase inhibitors (such as Raf and PI3K to treat a genetically defined subset of patients with a common disease such as colorectal cancer, breast cancer or melanoma), deacetylase (DAC) inhibitors, and antibody-based therapeutics (such as anti-DKK1).

Oncology concentrates on common solid tumors such as prostate cancer, breast cancer and melanoma, on rare tumors such as medulloblastoma and multiple myeloma, and on chronic myelogenic leukemia.

 

 

Selected publications

• Identification and characterization of NVP-BEZ235, a new orally available dual phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor with potent in vivo antitumor activity. Maira SM, Stauffer F, Brueggen J, Furet P, Schnell C, Fritsch C, Brachmann S, Chène P, De Pover A, Schoemaker K, Fabbro D, Gabriel D, Simonen M, Murphy L, Finan P, Sellers W, García-Echeverría C. Mol Cancer Ther. 2008 Jul;7(7):1851-63. Epub 2008 Jul 7.
• A Smac mimetic rescue screen reveals roles for inhibitor of apoptosis proteins in tumor necrosis factor-alpha signaling. Gaither A, Porter D, Yao Y, Borawski J, Yang G, Donovan J, Sage D, Slisz J, Tran M, Straub C, Ramsey T, Iourgenko V, Huang A, Chen Y, Schlegel R, Labow M, Fawell S, Sellers WR, Zawel L. Cancer Res. 2007 Dec 15;67(24):11493-8.