A brain-reaching drug shrank lung tumors with a RET gene change
Original title: Soxataltinib, a highly selective CNS-penetrant RET inhibitor demonstrates durable activity in RET fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer phase 2 study.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was tested in people. That is the most reliable kind of research we share.
It is being tested in people in a mid stage trial, but it is not yet approved.
The short version
A drug that can reach the brain shrank tumors in most people in this trial.
What was studied. Doctors tested a drug called soxataltinib in people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. All had a gene change called a RET fusion. There were 56 people who had not been treated yet and 49 who had been treated before.
What they found. Tumors shrank in 84.8% of the people. That was 89.3% of those not treated before, and 79.6% of those treated before. Tumors in the brain shrank in 4 of 4 untreated people and 3 of 5 people treated before.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: For people with this gene change, this drug may help control cancer in the body and in the brain. Serious side effects linked to the drug happened in 76.2% of people. Most were handled by changing the dose. Only 1.9% of people stopped the drug, and no one died from it.
What it doesn't mean: This was a mid stage trial. Everyone got the same drug, so there was no group to compare with. That means we cannot say it works better than other RET drugs. The drug is not approved and is not everyday care. Only a few people with brain tumors were measured, so those numbers are very small. This was lung cancer that can spread to the brain, not a tumor that starts in the brain. This is not a cure.
Source: PubMed, November 5, 2026 · Read the original
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