Therapeutics Award

Dr. Krupnick’s laboratory has shown that non-small cell lung cancer may develop resistance to immune-mediated destruction due to IFN gamma insensitivity. Dr. Krupnick is now investigating his hypothesis that lung cancer cells develop the ability to escape the immune system by stopping the production of IFN gamma.

The protein osteopontin plays a significant role in the malignant potential of numerous types of cancer, including lung cancer. There are three distinct forms of this protein in humans. Dr. Donington is studying how the individual forms play significantly different roles in determining the invasive metastatic potential in lung cancer.

Dr. Adusumilli is studying patients who underwent surgery for early-stage lung cancer but whose lung cancer returned because of a condition in which the cancer extends to the pleural membrane covering the lung cancer. Using genetic engineering, Dr. Adusumilli is modifying the patient’s own immune cells in a way that may not only eliminate the spread of tumor cells to the pleura but may also treat the spread of the cancer by tumors too small to be detected.

The rationale behind Dr. Goodglick’s research is that the hormone estrogen and estrogen-pathway activation are important for lung cancer progression. Aromatase is an enzyme that makes estrogen in the body. Dr. Goodglick is conducting extensive pre-clinical evaluations of three aromatase inhibitors to understand steps in the estrogen stimulation pathway that affect tumor progression.

Dr. Chandel is working to identify novel pathways underlying KRAS-driven lung cancer. He is testing two pathways, to determine how mitochondria (powerhouses of the cell) and Notch signaling (a pathway often activated in lung cancer that relays information from outside the cell to inside) behave differently in cancer and non-cancer cells.

Dr. Moghaddam is investigating how airway inflammation can lead to lung cancer.  The factor NF-κβ is involved in both inflammation and carcinogenesis. Dr. Moghaddam’s hypothesis is that NF-κβ is a likely candidate for the promotion of lung cancer by inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

Previous work of Dr. Eaton and colleagues has demonstrated that mice vaccinated with certain stem cells are 80%-90% protected against the growth of lung tumors injected into the mice as well as protected against the development of lung cancer caused by administration of a carcinogen. The current research is determining whether lung cancer stem cells are selectively destroyed by lymphocytes (immune cells) from vaccinated mice. Dr. Eaton is also determining whether stem cell vaccination  affects the growth of lung tumors in mice that have been genetically engineered to spontaneously develop lung cancer.

Dr. Khullar’s project addresses a huge unmet need in lung cancer–how to ensure chemotherapy drugs are being delivered at the right concentration to sites of lung cancer metastasis. He has developed a nanoparticle system in which the particles carry the chemotherapy paclitaxel to different sites of metastasis, thus preventing the spread of lung cancer.

Dr. Yendamuri is conducting a clinical trial among stage-1 non-small cell lung cancer patients to confirm a microRNA signature for the prediction of the recurrence of lung cancer after surgery. He then will develop a blood-based microRNA profile for the detection of lung cancer recurrence.

The CHFR gene is a gene that has undergone changes in its DNA. Dr. Brandes is studying how the CHFR gene predicts a non-small cell lung cancer patient’s response to chemotherapy.