The way we understand small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is about to change thanks to the research being conducted by LCRF grantee Dr. Trudy Oliver and her lab at the University of Utah. Dr. Oliver and team have discovered a genetic alteration, MYC, that drives how SCLC tumors develop. The MYC alteration discovery may lead to a new treatment that could target this specific alteration. SCLC, a particularly aggressive form of lung cancer, is in need of more options for treatment especially since the current overall 5-year survival rate is just 6%. Read more about the research being done by Dr. Oliver in this article on the Huntsman Cancer Institute website.
“We targeted MYC-positive tumors and saw remarkable results, including tumor shrinkage and tumor death and a significant extension in overall survival,” says Milind Chalishazar, a PhD student in the Oliver lab, who conducted the laboratory work. “This suggests that we have identified a potential new therapeutic strategy that will improve lung cancer outcomes in the future.”
LCRF is proud to support this study through the William C. Rippe Award for Distinguished Research in Lung Cancer, which was awarded to Dr. Oliver in 2018.
We recently had a conversation with Dr. Oliver about her research. Read the interview here.
