Innovating the development of highly selective medicines for patients with genetically defined cancers

Understanding the Biological Basis of Genetically Defined Cancers

Cancer is a disease of the DNA, with specific cancers often arising from distinct activating gene alterations. In the case of any given patient’s specific cancer, the “driving” gene alteration orders the cell to continue to divide, causing the cancerous tumor to form. In order to continue to survive, these tumors depend on the continued alteration of this gene and are uniquely vulnerable to any drug that is able to disrupt the faulty signaling pathway. Loxo Oncology is focused on developing therapies for cancers that are uniquely dependent on single gene abnormalities, such that a single drug has the potential to treat the cancer, by directly inhibiting a tumor’s driving genetic alteration.