Dasatinib in Advanced Squamous Cell Lung Cancer

Dasatinib is a drug that has been shown to stop some cancer cells from growing. This drug has been used in treatment for other types of cancer and information from other research studies suggests that dasatinib may help to stop squamous cell lung cancer from growing, especially in individuals whose tumor has a mutation in the DDR2 gene. Advanced squamous cell lung cancer (SqCC) carries a poor prognosis and new therapeutic targets are needed. Several studies have examined dasatinib in NSCLC; these report significant toxicities, but also responses in patients found to harbor mutations in DDR2 or BRAF. An open-label phase II trial with dasatinib was carried out to determine the response rates in patients with SqCC who had previously failed standard chemotherapy and to correlate responses with patient genotype.

Dasatinib will be taken orally, daily in cycles of 28 days. On the first day of study treatment and at 2 weeks, 4 weeks and then every 4 weeks subjects will have the following: * Medical history and clinical exam * Safety blood tests * Measurement of Performance Status * Review of pill log * CT scans will be done every 8 weeks. In this research study, the investigators are looking at how well dasatinib works in treating squamous cell lung cancer. Dasatinib administered at 140mg per day for the treatment of advanced SqCC of the lung is associated with excess adverse events, similar to other studies, so is not recommended in unselected patients. Further work to identify patients likely to benefit from dasatinib and in managing dasatinib-related toxicities is needed.