The research you fund through LCRF is making meaningful progress in the fight against lung cancer. We are pleased to share our 2023 grantees’ one-year updates in this series.
Ann Pendergast, PhD
Duke University School of Medicine
2023 LCRF Research Grant on Understanding Resistance in Lung Cancer
What she’s doing:
Dr. Pendergast is conducting groundbreaking work to uncover new ways to treat therapy-resistant small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Her research focuses on understanding how cancer cells communicate at the molecular level, specifically through RNA messages.
How it’s going:
Dr. Pendergast’s team has identified ABL, a proto-oncogene that supports cancer growth, as a key target. By inhibiting ABL, they’ve found that cancer cells experience increased DNA damage, which can slow or stop tumor growth. Even more promising, when combined with ATR inhibitors—a protein that protects cells from DNA damage—this approach significantly reduced metastatic tumors and prolonged survival in tumor-bearing mice.
What it could mean for patients:
While this research is still in its early stages, discoveries like these lay the foundation for smarter, more effective therapies for patients with SCLC.