2015 Lung Cancer Research Foundation Annual Grant Program
Leanne Li, MD, PhD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Project:
Understanding how the different populations within tumors collaborate to form metastasis in lung cancer
Summary:
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly aggressive subtype of lung cancer. It metastasizes early, and despite high initial response rates to chemotherapy, the disease invariably relapses, resulting in a median survival of less than one year. Previous studies identified multiple subpopulations within the primary SCLC tumors. This heterogeneity found in the SCLC tumor cells is functionally important for metastasis formation, yet the precise mechanism remains poorly understood. Dr. Li will use a panel of distinct SCLC cell lines derived from a mouse model of SCLC, to determine how these heterogeneous SCLC cells cooperate with one another to promote metastasis from the original tumor. By elucidating the genes and pathways involved in this cooperativity, SCLC metastasis could potentially be diminished or even abolished when these interactions within the heterogeneous tumor are interrupted.