Compositions and methods for treating cancer using interferon and mapk pathway inhibitor

A method of treating cancer in a subject, comprising the step of administering to the subject an interferon and a cytotoxic agent, wherein the combination of the interferon and the cytotoxic agent produces a synergistic effect on the cancer compared to the effect of the interferon alone or the effect of the cytotoxic agent alone.

A pharmaceutical composition comprising a first amount of an interferon and a second amount of an inhibitor of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, wherein the combination of the first amount of interferon and the second amount of the inhibitor of the MAPK pathway produces a synergistic effect on cancer compared to the effect of the first amount of interferon alone or the effect of the second amount of the inhibitor of the MAPK pathway alone.

A method of treating cancer cells, comprising the steps of:

• (a) determining activity of STAT1 (Signal Transduction And Transcription 1) signaling pathway in the cancer cells;
• and
• (b) administering to the cancer cells an inhibitor of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, if the activity of the STAT1 signaling pathway in step (a) is less than 20% of activity of STAT1 signaling pathway in WM1361 melanoma cells.

A method of treating cancer cells, comprising the steps of:

• (a) determining copy number of interferon locus located on chromosome 9p22 in the cancer cells;
• (b) administering to the cancer cells an inhibitor of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, if the copy number of the interferon locus determined in step (a) is 0 or 1.