News

“Know Your Risk: A Hispanic and Latino American’s Guide to Lung Cancer” launches at National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts annual gala

NEW YORK, NY and Washington, DC (septiembre 20, 2023) – The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) announces today the launch of its newest awareness program, “Know Your Risk: A Hispanic and Latino American’s Guide to Lung Cancer,” at the Visioning Summit gala event this evening, presented by the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (NHFA).

Lung cancer is the most common non-cutaneous cancer overall and the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among Hispanic/Latino men, and the second leading cause of cancer death in Hispanic/Latina women.[1] Despite having a lower incidence rate of lung cancer than non-Latino white Americans, Latinos with lung cancer were 13% less likely to be diagnosed early, 2% less likely to receive surgical treatment, and 39% more likely to not receive any treatment in comparison.[2]

This new awareness program aims to educate Hispanic and Latino Americans about the many risk factors associated with lung cancer – exposure to air pollution, environmental toxins, radon, second-hand smoke – as well as signs and symptoms to be aware of, and the importance of screening for lung cancer to detect it early enough to increase survival.

Included in the program are a documentary video, featuring Dr. Narjust Florez, thoracic oncologist – Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Assistant Professor of Medicine – Harvard Medical School, and two of her patients; along with PSAs featuring award-winning actor, Esai Morales. LCRF offers several Spanish-language educational resources about lung cancer for patients and their caregivers. All elements of the program can be found on the foundation’s website at LCRF.org/KnowYourRisk. The PSA will premiere at the NHFA’s annual gala tonight as part of its Visioning Summit.

“It is our pleasure to launch “Know Your Risk” at this event,” says Felix Sanchez, NHFA Chair & Co-founder. “Our organization’s membership is very concerned about disparities surrounding health and health access; we believe that education and awareness help to combat those disparities. With lung cancer being the number one cancer killer of Hispanic and Latino men, and second highest cancer killer of our community’s women, it is important that we help share the message.”

“As I have said, I hid my mother’s cigarettes from her when I was a child,” says Esai Morales, award-winning actor and spokesperson for this awareness campaign. “I have learned since then how many other exposures put people at risk for lung cancer. As a proud Hispanic American, I am honored to bring this message to my community and to be the face of this very important campaign.”

“Partnering with NHFA, Felix, and Esai is exciting for all of us at LCRF,” says Aubrey Rhodes, LCRF’s executive director. “By joining forces, we can more effectively spread the word about the risks, symptoms, and treatment options for lung cancer in Hispanic and Latino communities. Our hope is that earlier detection and access to treatment will give patients a better quality of life, as well as more time with the people who love them.”

This program is funded in part by Bristol Myers Squibb, with additional support provided by grants from Amgen, Lilly Oncology, Regeneron, Daiichi Sankyo, Pfizer, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Merck.

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About the Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF)
The Lung Cancer Research Foundation® (LCRF) is the leading nonprofit organization focused on funding innovative, high-reward research with the potential to extend survival and improve quality of life for people with lung cancer. LCRF’s mission is to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure of lung cancer. To date, LCRF has funded 409 research grants, totaling more than $42 million, the highest amount provided by a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding lung cancer research. For more information, visit lcrf.org.

About the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (NHFA)
Actors Jimmy Smits, Sonia Braga, Esai Morales, Merel Julia, and attorney Felix Sanchez created the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts in 1997 to advance the presence of Latinos in the media and entertainment industries. Since its inception, the Foundation has promoted and advanced the representation of Latino students, artists, and storytellers in the entertainment and media industries through advocacy, visibility, and talent cultivation work. By ensuring that the entertainment, media, and arts landscapes reflect the rich diversity of our society, the Foundation is driving progress and building a more equitable and inclusive future for all.

1. Hispanic/Latino 2021-2023 Cancer Facts and Figures

2. American Lung Association State of Lung Cancer, Racial and Ethnic Disparitie s

During our septiembre 18 #TogetherSeparately webinar, Dr. Jacob Kaufman and Dr. Jeremy Brownstein from The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio State University talked about treatment approaches to lung cancer with moderator Dr. Isabel Preeshagul. Watch the recording below.

By Wendy Lassen Feldman
septiembre 2023

Looking back, the summer before my diagnosis I had some odd reverberating feelings in my lungs when I would laugh. I did see my doctor, but he thought it was reflux. Then, during a routine visit with a breast surgeon (because I am high risk for breast cancer) we found a lump. Turns out, that lump was not cancer, but because it scared me, I advocated for scans. While my doctor thought it was nothing, I insisted on a chest x-ray. I still can’t explain it to this day, but I knew something wasn’t right.

The day of my x-rays is also the day that my father died. I was in the car after my initial x-ray when my sister called to let me know that dad had died. Then, I got a call from the doctor’s office asking me to come back right away because I either had pneumonia or a tumor. I went back to Baltimore, had a CT scan, a PET scan a day after that, and was diagnosed with stage III lung cancer.

Not only treatable, but curable

I was diagnosed on septiembre 8, 2016. The following night, I read my scan reports and looked up what I had and was freaked out. I called the thoracic oncology unit after seeing my scan results, and the head nurse called me back to discuss the results with me. She told me, “this is not only treatable, it can be curable.” And with that, I started my lung cancer journey with hope.

I completed biomarker testing, and my lung cancer was determined to be ROS1-positive – a type of non-small-cell lung cancer that occurs in only 1-2% of patients.

My life was dark. My father had passed away and I had just received a lung cancer diagnosis.

I needed purpose. That’s where my children come into the story. My kids were amazing, giving me the emotional strength that I needed. They truly showed up for me, as did my ex-husband, friends, family and community.

I met with a team of doctors at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and while receiving the treatment plan I asked a medical oncologist, “do you see me here in five years?” and without hesitation she said “yes” confidently. That saved me in that moment.

I started chemo and radiation on the same day. I was given cisplatin and pemetrexed, and simultaneously underwent aggressive radiation. I finished chemo-radiation on noviembre 9, had surgery three weeks later on diciembre 1, and an optional post-surgery radiation treatment on enero 18, 2017 – then I was done. During my treatment I did not lose my hair, and I didn’t feel sick. I worked out, went on walks, and put on my makeup every day. It was important to me to still be me.

Don’t give up

My advice for someone with a lung cancer diagnosis sounds cliché, but it is true and important: don’t give up. When I went online after my diagnosis and saw my survival percentages, I could have given up. But lung cancer is not a death sentence. It is not all black and white. And if the survival rate is 20% – why can’t YOU be one of those 20%?

Remember, what you see online as a survival rate isn’t always reality – the data is often outdated, and it doesn’t take your personal circumstances into account.

Even at stage 4, lung cancer can be managed like a chronic illness with the advances doctors and scientists are making. Keep yourself alive. Don’t feel pressure to be “cured” – just keep yourself alive as long as possible so that you can benefit from the discoveries being made in the lung cancer space every single day.

I believe in manifestation. I didn’t hate my cancer. I didn’t fight it. Fighting something only keeps it alive to fight back. Instead, I grew to understand that my cancer was a part of me. It was just a part of me that I didn’t have room for in my life. As I laid on the radiation table, I would imagine the radiation killing the tumors and tell them, “it’s time for you to go now.”

My dollars go to research

LCRF’s mission resonated with me from the start. “Research” is in the name, and it’s what they do. Developments are occurring constantly, providing options for patients with lung cancer, and I want to be a part of that. I also appreciate that LCRF is a small organization, in that it is accessible and personal, and the staff make an effort to get to know their supporters. I thought at the beginning that LCRF was a huge organization with the amount of impact they have. But because LCRF is actually a small, accessible organization, I am able to truly know where my dollars are going and get to know the organization in a more personal way.

I plan to stay involved with LCRF, as a donor, a fundraiser, an attendee at events, and as a resource. I am happy to talk with anyone facing a lung cancer diagnosis. It is important to hear that there is hope. People are surviving.

Support lung cancer research

The 16th annual Elliot’s Legacy, a beachside family carnival featuring kite flying in memory of Elliot Chalmé A’H, took place agosto 20. Elliot passed away from lung cancer in 2006 at the age of 56, and flying kites was a beloved activity of his.

At least 500 people – most of them families with children – enjoyed activities including airbrushing, rides, bounce houses, and (of course) flying kites.

LCRF Board member Ray Chalmé, his brothers Richie and Hy, their mother Robin and a new generation of Chalmés have raised close to $8 million since the event’s inception in 2007.

Robin Chalmé Rahmey, Elliot’s granddaughter, had a big role in planning this year’s event. “Growing up, my family’s commitment to funding research was second only to honoring my grandfather in a fun and family-oriented way,” she said. “It’s just who he was, so it seems natural that I help continue the tradition of bringing families together to fly kites in his memory for years to come.”

“It’s incredible to think that this event we started 16 years ago to honor our dad has supported the work of so many lung cancer researchers,” said Ray Chalmé. “The $8 million raised for lung cancer research through Elliott’s Legacy Kites for a Cure means an additional $48 million in follow-on funding will be received by LCRF grantees.”

“Elliot was a shining light to so many, and he continues to shine through this event. We’re so honored to have his legacy be the catalyst for giving other lung cancer patients more time,” said Elliot’s wife, Robin.

The Chalmé family is grateful to the generous sponsors and donors who have supported the event year after year, and are proud of the impact they are making on the future for patients with lung cancer.

“We not only keep my dad’s memory alive through this event, but research advancements are also directly impacted by the many generous donors who help us continue to fight for a cure every year,” Ray added.

“LCRF is indebted to the Chalmé family,” said Aubrey Rhodes, Executive Director. “Their commitment to funding lung cancer research is demonstrated year after year. Their impact is felt far beyond just what the family has raised through this event over the last 16 years. We are so grateful for their belief in the mission of LCRF.”

Below are a few photos of the event. More photos will be available soon.

Volunteers to provide patient and caregiver perspective to foundation’s grant award process

NEW YORK, NY (agosto 29, 2023) – The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) is pleased to announce the appointment of a select group of volunteers as its Research Advocates. These dedicated individuals are patients, survivors, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and advocates committed to identifying and funding innovative lung cancer research.

This group is tasked with playing a significant role in determining areas of research to fund, drafting requests for proposals (RFPs), reviewing, and providing input on grant applications, and supporting education, awareness, and funding efforts.

“It is important to include the patient voice in everything we do as an organization,” remarked Aubrey Rhodes, LCRF’s Executive Director. “Patient involvement in the decision-making process surrounding LCRF’s research investments ensures funding for the most promising projects with the greatest potential impact on patient outcomes.”

“At its core, research is about creating better outcomes for patients, so enabling us to participate in the process – from prioritizing areas of research to focus on through helping identify the most promising grant submissions – will help advance research that has the greatest chance of changing people’s lives,” says Bruce Dunbar, LCRF board member, chair of LCRF’s Corporate Development Committee, and Research Advocate. “The scope of innovative thinking and high-potential research in lung cancer science today is unprecedented and I’m excited to work with this prestigious group to advance the research in patient-centric ways.”

LCRF’s Research Advocates

Aaron Andersen, MD — Waukesha, WI
Emergency Medicine Physician
Emergency Medical Associates of Waukesha, WI
Lung Cancer Patient Advocate

Sarah Christ — Long Island, NY
Lung Cancer Patient/Survivor & Advocate

Colleen Conner Ziegler — Rochester, NY
LCRF Board of Directors, LCRF Scientific Executive Committee
Lung Cancer Patient/Survivor & Advocate

Denise Cutlip – Ypsilanti, MI
LCRF Education and Engagement Committee
Lung Cancer Patient/Survivor & Advocate

Dusty Donaldson — High Point, NC
Founder, Dusty Joy Foundation
Lung Cancer Patient/Survivor & Advocate

Bruce Dunbar — New Rochelle, NY
LCRF Board of Directors, LCRF Corporate Development Committee Chair
Lung Cancer Patient/Survivor & Advocate

Kristen H. Kimball, MS, MEM — Boston, MA
Educator, UCONN
Lung Cancer Patient Advocate

Barbara LaMonaca — Falls Church, VA
BSN, Speech Pathology & Audiology, Retired
Lung Cancer Patient/Survivor & Advocate

Sulaiha Masten, PhD — Fairfax, VA
Clinical Psychologist, Retired
Lung Cancer Patient/Survivor & Advocate

Frank McKenna, MS Ed — Virginia Beach, VA
Cancer Exercise Specialist
Founder, Beach Better Bodies
Lung Cancer Patient/Survivor & Advocate

Emily Venanzi, PhD – Newton, MA
ALK Positive Inc. Medical Committee
Lung Cancer Patient/Survivor & Advocate

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During our agosto 23 #TogetherSeparately webinar, Dr. Ishwaria Subbiah and Dr. Isabel Preeshagul discussed palliative care and support resources for patients with lung cancer. Dr. Subbiah is Executive Director, Cancer Care Equity and Professional Wellness for Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI) and a member of LCRF’s Education + Engagement Committee.

Watch the video below.

Carebox to help LCRF advance lung cancer research by making identifying relevant lung cancer trials* easier and more effective for patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals*

NEW YORK and RALEIGH, N.C., ago. 1, 2023 – The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) and Carebox, a leading provider of clinical trial matching solutions, today announced the launch of a Carebox Connect experience optimized for lung cancer patients.

From the clinical trials page of the LCRF website, lung cancer patients, their caregivers and healthcare professionals can visit the Carebox Connect web application for an easy and effective way to search for and match to potentially relevant trials. By making this search resource available on its website, LCRF is connecting patients to research and enabling them to make the best treatment decisions for themselves.

Visitors to the web application can complete a ten-question questionnaire about the patient’s lung cancer condition and then instantly see which of over one thousand actively recruiting clinical trials with treatment options, are potentially relevant for them. They can then get connected to a trial research site for next steps.

The Carebox Connect trial database is synchronized daily with the ClinicalTrials.gov clinical trial data maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Applying its human-supervised AI, Carebox converts the unstructured text in ClinicalTrials.gov that describes eligibility criteria for enrollment, into a searchable index of clinical criteria for matching with patient characteristics.

For more advanced users, full search and filtering capabilities are available. Filters can be saved for future use. Furthermore, based on those saved filters, users can subscribe to receive Carebox Connect notifications in their email inbox whenever new trials open (or new sites open) in a defined distance radius from where they are located.

“LCRF is on a mission to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Patient participation in clinical trials is a critical component on the road to our vision of a world free of lung cancer”, explains Aubrey Rhodes, Executive Director of LCRF, adding that “Carebox Connect enables us to both advance research and make clinical trial treatment options much more accessible to the lung cancer patient community.”

“The Carebox Connect Network has a common technology foundation and a unified end-user application,” notes Assaf Levi, Carebox VP of R&D. “However, we can create customized experiences for each specific condition so that lung cancer patients arriving from LCRF are directed to the relevant questionnaire and trials for them. Knowing that we are touching the lives of so many patients and can help support efforts of organizations like LCRF in advancing such important research, is core to what makes working at Carebox special for the entire engineering team”.

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About the Lung Cancer Research Foundation
The Lung Cancer Research Foundation® (LCRF) is the leading nonprofit organization focused on funding innovative, high-reward research with the potential to extend survival and improve quality of life for people with lung cancer. LCRF’s mission is to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure of lung cancer. To date, LCRF has funded 409 research grants, totaling nearly $42 million, the highest amount provided by a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding lung cancer research. For more information, visit LCRF.org.

About Carebox
Carebox connects patients and physicians seeking treatment options with clinical trials. For patients and families, access to information about the newest and most advanced treatment options is obscured and frustrating to find. For pharma companies, clinical trial recruitment is the primary bottleneck in the $100B+ drug development market now being reshaped by precision medicine treatment specificity, new trial models, diversity requirements, and digital health consumer expectations. Carebox is at the forefront of addressing these challenges for patients and their families, as well as for the ecosystem of companies involved in sponsoring, running, and recruiting for clinical trials. Learn more about Carebox at careboxhealth.com.

About Carebox Connect
The Carebox Connect cloud platform digitizes Carebox’s two decades of experience in navigating over one million patients seeking clinical trial options. It enables trial sponsors of all sizes to educate, engage, navigate, match, qualify, refer, and enroll patients in their clinical trials. Pharma trial sponsors, hospital research centers, and patient advocacy groups use Carebox Connect to present their clinical trial portfolios to the public, optimize trial recruitment, and enhance participant diversity in support of ongoing clinical research.

About The Carebox Connect Network
In addition to customer-branded Carebox Connect solutions for trials sponsors and sites, the Carebox Connect Network bring the power of the platform to patients, families, and caregivers via a rapidly growing network of dozens of patient advocacy groups and physician associations reaching tens of thousands of patients. Carebox runs co-branded and branded web applications and/or clinical trial navigation services on behalf of its Carebox Connect Network partners.

Contact:
Sheila Sullivan
Sr. Director, Marketing & Communications, LCRF
ssullivan@lcrf.org

LCRF’s new Executive Director, Aubrey Rhodes and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Antoinette (Toni) Wozniak talk about some of the work being done by LCRF grantees and the status of this year’s application process. Watch a video excerpt; a transcript of their full conversation is also available below.

Ms. Rhodes:
Hi, everyone, I’m Aubrey Rhodes. I’m the newly appointed executive director for the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, and happy to be serving in this role. I’ve actually been with the organization for the last seven years, working on some of the strategy and fundraising. So looking forward to continuing our success. And speaking of success, there have been quite a few updates from some of the research that we have funded right here at LCRF, thanks to all of you. So I thought I would bring our Chief Scientific officer, Dr. Toni Wozniak, to join us and talk a little bit about some of those updates from Dr. Hideko Isozaki and Dr. Mariam Jamal-Hanjani.

Dr. Wozniak:
Hi. I’m really glad to be here and to tell you about some of the exciting research that we have funded from LCRF. Dr. Isozaki is at Dana-Farber and she’s interested in what we call persister cells. And these are cancer cells that persist after treatment with targeted therapy. In this case, she’s actually been working with EGFR tumors as well as ALK positive tumors. And what she’s found is that one of the potential mechanisms of resistance is the accumulation of an enzyme called APOBEC. It’s a cytidine deaminase – it’s got a very long name, so I won’t go into it – but its accumulation causes more instability in these cells. They have more mutations, and because they’re unstable, they tend to eventually grow. She’s actually looked at this in real tumor tissue from patients both before treatment with targeted therapy and afterwards. She and her team are also looking at a way to target these abnormalities. The goal is to overcome resistance, and this is one way of potentially doing it. So that’s pretty exciting because if successful, it could help patients live longer.

Ms. Rhodes:
That is exciting, Toni! I mean, if we can figure out resistance, that means patients would be able to stay on their treatments longer. That’s the ideal, right? We don’t want to deal with resistance as an issue – and this could help us figure out more about it so that we don’t have those challenges.

Dr. Wozniak:
The goal is always ultimately a cure, but if we can sort of inch toward there with overcoming these resistance patterns, patients certainly can live longer, and who knows, maybe potentially be cured. The second researcher, is actually in London – Dr . Jamal-Hanjani. We funded her through our Minority Career Development Award. And her research is really very interesting. It sort of centers around why patients who never smoked get lung cancer. They’ve done a very large study and looked at the rates of a certain type of pollution. The particles from the pollution are 2.5 microns or smaller, and they can actually get into the lung and cause a lot of inflammation. What they have found out is that in areas with this particular type of pollution, there seem to be more lung cancer in patients who never smoked. Interestingly, many people who do not have active lung cancer may have some abnormalities already in their natural cells. And in this case, they found out that there may be EGFR mutations. However, these patients actually don’t have lung cancer, and some of them may not get it, but the inflammation from the pollution may activate these mutations and they can get lung cancer. Her research actually has resulted in publication in a very high impact journal: Nature. And it’s caused quite a bit of attention. So this is actually pretty exciting as well.

Ms. Rhodes:
Yeah, it sounds really exciting to learn a little bit more about how we might be able to even detect lung cancer earlier for some potential patients.

Dr. Wozniak:
And maybe even how to prevent it – if we can deal with the pollution.

Ms. Rhodes:
Exactly. Toni, you mentioned ALK positive, and speaking of that particular type of lung cancer, we recently just formed a partnership with the ALK Positive patient advocacy group. Well, we actually evolved a partnership, I should say – we’ve had a partnership for quite some time. But we really took a step in the next direction in terms of the research that we want to fund. We just recently released a new RFP – a request for research proposals – in the ALK positive space that will be a $2 million award, one of the single largest awards we’ve given as an organization. Could you talk a little bit about the projects that we are hoping to fund?

Dr. Wozniak:
Well, we’ve been funding – as you said, Aubrey – ALK positive research for quite some time. But to really make an bigger impact, we feel that we need to move into larger grants. And that’s what this grant hopefully will be. It’ll be a larger grant, $2 million over three years toward research for ALK positive patients. And the whole idea is that we come up with something innovative because these patients have done extraordinarily well with current treatments, but they’re not cured, and we have to move toward that. So the goal is to have a novel clinical trial associated with the grant; in fact, it has to be associated with the grant. The grant can have a funding partner, for instance, the pharmaceutical company that’s supporting the clinical trial. The goal of the grant is to try to understand ALK positive lung cancer, why it becomes resistant, and how to overcome resistance with whatever clinical trials associated with it. So there’s going to be a lot of translational work. It could include more than one project, but ultimately they’ll be integrated. And the goal is to make further advancements in the treatment of ALK positive lung cancer.

Ms. Rhodes:
Yeah. You know, focusing in this specific area in the translational and clinical space will certainly bring those treatment options to patients sooner. So that’s really exciting to hear as well. One other thing that you know is exciting that’s happening right now – we’re currently in the process of reviewing hundreds of grant applications that have been coming in over the last several months. Toni, I know that you’ve had a chance to review many of these applications. Maybe you can talk a little bit about what you’re seeing and any of your excitement around those projects.

Dr. Wozniak:
I got to review a number of what we call letters of intent. And this is the first step in many of the applications we have for grant tracks: leading edge, which would talk about potentially novel treatments or new ideas, overcoming resistance, early detection, and the Minority Career Development Awards. And we had a lot of interest; got a lot of LOIs. Unfortunately, I wish we could fund everybody, but we can’t. Out of the letters of intent, we select probably around 15 to 20% of them to ask the researchers to submit a full proposal. Then we review those. And we just recently did that. Again, there were some exciting ideas. There was some interest in looking at what I mentioned before, these persister cells and mechanisms of resistance and EGFR.

There were some applications in small cell lung cancer, which we’re very happy to see because that is a disease that is a bit of an orphan disease with not a lot of progress. So I’m hoping that these applications will make some progress in that disease. There were several applications looking at immunotherapy and different ways of improving outcomes with immunotherapy by looking at different targets. So there were a number of different proposals, all very exciting. And as I said, we can only fund so many, and I wish we could fund more of them.

Ms. Rhodes:
Well, it’s exciting to hear you talk about the different sorts of projects, that we could potentially fund. I think the big part there is that we need to be able to raise those funds in order to do so, right? And so we actually have a couple of upcoming events that you can participate in to help us raise those dollars to fund those researchers and hopefully fund even more science. We’ve got the Evening of Innovation gala taking place on septiembre 26. Tickets just recently became available, so if you will be in the New York City area or would like to travel to be with us at the Metropolitan Club that evening, we certainly would love for you to join. We also will be kicking off our Free to Breathe Walk to celebrate World Lung Cancer Day. We’ll be fundraising up until the end of the year. But the Free to Breathe Walk weekend will take place over septiembre 30 to octubre 1. So we hope that you will join us. I would also just say this is a really great opportunity to really honor a loved one who’s received a diagnosis, or has passed from lung cancer. It’s a great way to rally around them and honor their legacy. And so I would encourage you to join us.

Dr. Wozniak:
I also want to mention, Aubrey, that we have a lot of plans for the future, and our success depends on these grants that we’re planning, whether we can fund them because I am sure that they’re going to make a bigger impact.

Ms. Rhodes:
I completely agree with you, Toni. I think we’ve got big plans and a big vision that the Scientific Advisory Board has been working on. And it will certainly require additional funding to continue to move forward. But it’s necessary if we’re going to make a real dent in progress.

Dr. Kathryn Gold, University of California San Diego, Moores Cancer Center, and Dr. Ibiayi Dagogo-Jack, Massachusetts General, joined moderator Dr. Isabel Preeshagul to recap the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting.

ASCO, or American Society of Clinical Oncology, is the premier organization for health care professionals involved in the care of cancer patients. It aims to conquer cancer through research, education, and the promotion of the highest quality, equitable patient care. The annual meeting, which took place in junio, includes highlights around exciting new updates and advancements in the lung cancer research and treatment space.

Watch the video below.

The good news
Results from a study funded by LCRF may have uncovered a potential therapeutic strategy that could prevent or delay acquired resistance to lung cancer targeted therapy. Hideko Isozaki, PhD, a 2020 LCRF grantee, published this work in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature.

Why it’s important
The development of resistance to anticancer targeted therapy remains a big problem, and it is the main reason that patients are not cured from their treatment.

Dr. Isozaki has been studying the role of apolipoprotein B messenger RNA editing catalytic polypeptide-like (in short APOBEC) cytidine deaminases (the one studied here is A3A) in the development of drug resistance. Basically, APOBECA3A promotes gene damage in cancer cells that persist after treatment with targeted agents. This makes the cancer cells unstable, and they are more likely to grow and be resistant to the treatment. Dr. Isozaki was able to demonstrate this using cancer cells from patients that were taken before and after treatment.

What it means for patients
If we can understand how cancer cells become resistant to treatment and overcoming challenges associated with that resistance, patients could stay on their therapies and extend their survival. This discovery is a step towards that goal, and APOBECA3A could be a new target for treatment in patients.

What to watch for
Ways to block APOBECA3A will need to be developed in order to test these findings, and scientists are working on solutions. It is important to remember that the development of drug resistance in cancer cells is very complicated. This study represents one step forward in understanding the process.

News

LCRF announces awareness program launch

“Know Your Risk: A Hispanic and Latino American’s Guide to Lung Cancer” launches at National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts annual gala

#TogetherSeparately: Treatment Options