Background
Research
How You Can Help
All About Lung Cancer

Background

Lung cancer is the leading killer among all types of cancer in the United States. It is estimated that lung cancer accounts for about 14% of all new cancer cases in 2011, but will cause nearly 27% of all cancer deaths. Over the past three decades, little improvement has been achieved in extending the lives of lung cancer patients. In the late 1970's, about 37% of people survived one year or longer after initial diagnosis; now, three decades later, this number has only improved to 42%.

But there is hope. NFCR funds numerous leading researchers who are committed to finding more effective strategies for preventing, diagnosing and treating lung cancer. Through their dedicated efforts to build risk prediction models, identify cancer genes in early-stage lung cancer, design cutting-edge devices for monitoring drug response, and seek new strategies to overcome tumor drug resistance, NFCR scientists are leading the battle against the deadliest cancer.

Building risk prediction models for smoking-related lung cancer
NFCR Fellow Waun Ki Hong, M.D., M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

NFCR scientist Waun Ki Hong, M.D., a world-renowned cancer researcher from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, has long been studying the role of smoking in lung cancer development. His research in this area is near completion and has provided insights into why only a subgroup of smokers are prone to have their DNA damaged by smoking and consequently develop lung cancer. By building risk models to predict the development of smoking-related lung cancer, Dr. Hong hopes that those who are deemed to be at high risk could take proactive measures early on that might prevent or delay lung cancer development. Dr. Hong's team has also initiated clinical research on the natural Indian curry spice, curcumin, to determine its potential in lung cancer chemoprevention (using drugs to prevent cancer). Dr. Hong's initial results on this agent are promising and further research may confirm its usefulness in cancer chemoprevention.

Tailoring new anti-cancer drugs to the right patients
NFCR Project Director Alan C. Sartorelli, Ph.D., Yale University

laromustine is a promising new anti-cancer drug for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and several other types of cancer. Earlier clinical tests of laromustine in leukemia patients showed that the drug only works well in 30% of those patients, and this may very well be the case for patients with lung cancer. In the era of personalized medicine, NFCR scientist Alan Sartorelli, Ph.D., the discoverer of laromustine, is working to ensure that the right patients are selected for this new drug. Dr. Sartorelli knows that laromustine has a unique molecular mechanism: only tumor cells with low levels of a protein called AGT are likely to respond to it. Dr. Sartorelli's team at Yale University School of Medicine will use a two-pronged research plan to determine tumor types that will respond to laromustine. First, in a wide variety of tumor samples and matched control tissues, his team will accurately measure the AGT protein using a reliable and simple AGT method developed in his laboratory. Then the scientists will analyze the AGT gene in the tumor samples to assess how often certain cancers "turn off" the gene, causing these tumor types to be exceptionally responsive to laromustine. Dr. Sartorelli's research will determine a set of the tumor types sensitive to the drug-and this will assist clinical investigators to select and treat patients with lung and other types of cancer with a high likelihood of responding well to laromustine.

Detecting one cancer cell in a billion
NFCR Project Director Daniel A. Haber, M.D., Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center

Cancer cells in the blood are very rare - as few as 10 among eight billion normal blood cells. While the existence of these circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has been known for roughly 140 years, CTCs have eluded researchers because there has not been technology sensitive enough to efficiently capture them -- until now. NFCR scientist Daniel A. Haber, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center have designed a new microchip-based device called the CTC-chip, which can trap and isolate even a minute number of CTCs from a spoonful of blood running through the business-card sized chip.

There are three important potential benefits to this discovery. First, it may help physicians do a better job of monitoring how effective a patient's treatment is in real-time. An initial clinical trial showed that a lowering in the amount of CTCs in the blood correlated well with treatment effectiveness. Secondly, the use of the CTC-chip may help physicians make more timely treatment adjustments, and improve patient outcomes. A clinical trial involving patients with non-small cell lung cancer revealed that new genetic mutations can appear within 3 to 4 months following initial treatment, causing tumor resistance to the current therapy. Continuous tracking of such genetic changes in individual patients is essential for doctors to make timely treatment adjustments, but it would be almost unthinkable as a treatment modality if this had to be done through repeated, painful, and invasive tumor biopsy. The CTC-chip offers a very practical alternative through non-invasive blood testing. Finally, the latest research with the CTC-chip suggests it may potentially be used to screen CTCs in the blood stream to detect cancer at an earlier stage, long before it actually metastasizes to distant organs, opening a new door for cancer early detection and screening. Dr. Haber is currently optimizing the CTC-chip for large scale clinical application. His breakthrough technology may soon become a treatment option, dramatically changing the face of clinical care for patients.

Determining which patients will respond to Taxol, one of the most widely used chemotherapy drugs in the world
NFCR Fellow Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Taxol, a natural product from the yew tree, has been used to treat over a million cancer patients with lung, breast, and ovarian cancer. In fact, internationally known NFCR scientist, Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discovered the molecular mechanism of Taxol-that it binds and inhibits tubulin, a protein crucial to cell growth. However, lung cancer cells alter the type of tubulin protein expressed and Taxol may inhibit these different proteins less effectively. Dr. Horwitz reasoned that various types of tubulin proteins expressed by cancer cells may cause the resistance to Taxol observed in many patients. To focus on this very important problem, she has recently developed new techniques that enable her team to isolate and identify the different types of tubulin expressed in lung cancer cells as compared to normal cells. Importantly, the scientists will be able to learn if different types of tubulin proteins have varying sensitivity to Taxol. Dr. Horwitz's research is of high impact as it may be possible, by analyzing the type of tubulin expressed in a patient's cancer cells, to determine if they will respond effectively to Taxol even before the onset of treatment.

How You Can Help

These NFCR-supported research projects hold great promise for improving the treatment and survival of lung cancer patients, or possibly preventing lung cancer in the first place. What our scientists need is research funding. NFCR is committed to providing at least $300,000 per year to these outstanding scientists in order to keep their very promising research moving forward.

When you donate to NFCR, your gift will help our scientists take vital next steps in this promising research and bring us closer to a cure for lung cancer. The table below illustrates what your contribution can do to advance these important NFCR-supported research initiatives (actual expense for each purpose may vary).

Click here to learn more.

All About Lung Cancer