1. ¹Department of Molecular Oncology, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA
2. ²Department of Pathology, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA
3. ³Department of Biomedical Imaging, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA
4. ⁴Department of Protein Chemistry, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA

Correspondence: Dr DM French, Genentech Inc., MS 72B, 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA. E-mail: dfrench@gene.com

Received 10 January 2007; Revised 20 April 2007; Accepted 15 May 2007; Published online 25 June 2007.

Abstract

Although fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) can promote liver carcinogenesis in mice its involvement in human cancer is not well characterized. Here we report that FGF19 and its cognate receptor FGF receptor 4 (FGFR4) are coexpressed in primary human liver, lung and colon tumors and in a subset of human colon cancer cell lines. To test the importance of FGF19 for tumor growth, we developed an anti-FGF19 monoclonal antibody that selectively blocks the interaction of FGF19 with FGFR4. This antibody abolished FGF19-mediated activity in vitro and inhibited growth of colon tumor xenografts in vivo and effectively prevented hepatocellular carcinomas in FGF19 transgenic mice. The efficacy of the antibody in these models was linked to inhibition of FGF19-dependent activation of FGFR4, FRS2, ERK and -catenin. These findings suggest that the inactivation of FGF19 could be beneficial for the treatment of colon cancer, liver cancer and other malignancies involving interaction of FGF19 and FGFR4.