Targeted Drugs
Medicines selected to act on specific molecular abnormalities or signalling pathways.
How the treatment works
Targeted medicines act on molecular drivers or signalling pathways important to disease. In cancer, common targets include EGFR, ALK, HER2 and MET. Pathology and molecular testing can identify an alteration that helps guide drug selection. When resistance develops, repeat testing may reveal a new therapeutic direction.
Responding to resistance
China has capabilities spanning molecular diagnostics, innovative drug development, multicentre trials and clinical care. The SACHI study, led by Professor Shun Lu’s team at Shanghai Chest Hospital, illustrates an approach to acquired resistance in lung cancer: simultaneously targeting EGFR and MET in patients with EGFR-mutated disease that progressed after targeted therapy and developed MET amplification.
Savolitinib plus osimertinib was approved in China in June 2025 for eligible patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer. The study was published in The Lancet in 2026.
Individualised reassessment
This work reflects an important principle of precision oncology: treatment planning may need to change as the tumour evolves. After progression on a targeted drug, a specialist team can review the original pathology, treatment history and new tissue or blood tests to assess potentially actionable resistance mechanisms.
Finding an abnormality does not automatically mean a particular medicine will work. The finding must be matched to the evidence, approved indication and patient’s clinical circumstances.