2015 Lung Cancer Research Foundation Annual Grant Program
Daniel Gomez, MD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Research Project:
Identifying drivers of lung cancer spread through molecular analysis of primary and metastatic tissue
Summary:
One of the recent advances in the treatment of lung cancer is the finding that within an individual tumor, there are regions that differ from each other in their genomic pattern. This variation may explain why some tumors are more aggressive than others, and can be used to identify new targets for treatment. Dr. Gomez and his team will attempt to use this concept to explore the tissue of patients with lung cancer that has spread to different organs and who have had tissue sampled from both the lung tumor and the site to which the tumor has spread. Specifically, they will perform genomic profiling on both of these sites to determine which genes may be responsible for the spread of the tumor. The team will then explore the role of these genes in mouse models to provide further evidence that the genes are responsible for cancer spread and thus may be good targets for novel therapies.