The Future of Lung Cancer Research
October 2, 2015
The future of lung cancer research is truly exciting! From therapies harnessing the power of the immune system to attack tumours to the novel methods of early detection, innovative ways to reduce lung cancer mortality are already showing up in the clinic.
While my lab is involved in these fields, one area I am particularly interested in is identifying new targets for combination-based therapies in lung cancer. By understanding patterns of genes that are deregulated in lung tumours, we hope to develop therapies that inhibit multiple genes at once to stop the growth of cancer cells in patients with advanced disease.
It is my hope that this work will shift the paradigm in precision medicine from single agents that target individual mutated genes, to one that considers the complex interplay between genes that drive cancer progression. This strategy may counteract issues with drug resistance, leading to better patient outcomes.
Through our strong focus on understanding the molecular causes of lung cancer to identifying new drugs that inhibit these factors and the capacity to run clinical trials, the BC Cancer Agency is ideally suited to lead this research in the next decade. I look forward to working on this going forward and hope that you will follow and support us in this journey.
Well that is it for my session as a blogger! I hope you enjoyed learning more about lung cancer, our research efforts and how donors have made this possible!
Cheers,
Will