![New Strategy Against Deadly Lung Cancer]()
Better treatments are needed for small cell lung cancer (SCLC), an aggressive disease with poor prognosis (5-year survival rate less than 2%). Virtually all SCLCs have inactivating mutations in the same two genes, RB1 and TP53, but all efforts to design drugs to reactivate those genes have failed. Liang Zhu, M.D., Ph.D., and Edward Schwartz, Ph.D., received a five-year, $2.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to try a new approach. Their preliminary studies have shown that SCLC cannot develop in mice when one of RB1’s downstream target proteins (Skp2) is inactivated. The researchers have also identified an inhibitor of that protein that kills human and mouse SCLC tumors. Their new studies could lead to clinical trials of a therapy that might benefit most SCLC patients. Dr. Zhu is professor of developmental & molecular biology, of ophthalmology & visual sciences and of medicine at Einstein. Dr. Schwartz is a professor of medicine and of molecular pharmacology at Einstein. (1R01CA230032-01A1)
Posted on: Thursday, June 13, 2019