Lung Cancer

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle WA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY The overall goal of the Lung Cancer (LC) Program is to improve lung cancer patient survival by optimizing early detection strategies and developing novel therapeutic approaches for patients with late-stage disease, including for small cell lung cancer patients. The fact that the number of deaths attributable to lung cancer in the US has declined from 190,000 to 130,000 over the preceding decades provides reason for optimism on two fronts: substantial reductions in cigarette smoke consumption, particularly in the US, have led to a decrease in the number of lung cancer diagnoses; and five-year survival rates broke 20% for the first time for lung cancer patients, strongly suggesting that novel treatments are meaningfully impacting the disease. Despite these improvements in incidence and survival rates, these metrics compare very poorly to almost all other cancer types. Underlying these dismal statistics reside two fundamental issues. First, our ability to identify lung cancer at early states remains flawed, despite the introduction of legitimate screening practices. Second, our therapeutic strategies for patients diagnosed at an advanced stage continue to leave much to be desired. These two fundamental shortcomings must be addressed to produce a meaningful improvement in lung cancer patient outcomes. Research from the program also addresses critical deficiencies in lung cancer care available to patients residing within our catchment area. The LC Program has three specific aims to: 1) improve the efficacy of immune based therapies for lung cancer patients, 2) implement effective strategies for lung cancer screening and early detection, and 3) identify and exploit therapeutic vulnerabilities in SCLC. The program is a new program for this Cancer Center Support Grant renewal and is led by a team spanning many aspects of lung cancer research including basic, translational, population science, and clinical research in both non-small cell lung cancer small cell lung cancer, as well as clinical expertise in thoracic oncology and pulmonary medicine. The program is comprised of 34 members from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington, the majority having dual appointments and bringing expertise in a diverse array of both lung cancer science and lung cancer clinical care. Members hold $9.8M in research funding, including an NCI P50 Lung SPORE. The LC program is a highly collaborative group; 19% of the 73 publications in the most recent 12-month reporting year were intraprogrammatic and 33% were interprogrammatic. Twenty-two percent were in journals with impact factors >10. Members are also actively engaged in national networks and cooperative groups.