As we mark Lung Cancer Awareness Month, it is a time to acknowledge that screening and prevention are vital, and equally crucial is ensuring that patients have access to state-of-the-art care and research. Herein, I spotlight some of the transformative work underway at City of Hope.
Our multidisciplinary team—spanning medical oncology, surgical oncology, thoracic surgery, radiation oncology, pathology, pulmonary medicine, radiology, and supportive care—works in concert to individualize therapy for every patient. This approach is rooted in precision and personalized medicine, leverages molecular testing and various internal and external assays, and includes collaborations with TGen to develop novel biomarkers.
Some of these innovations extend to radiation oncology and radiology, where precision targeting and radiomics are advancing care. City of Hope is leveraging AI in translational research to analyze radiological patterns and genetic abnormalities, as demonstrated in our work on brain metastases with KRAS mutations, ALK fusions, and EGFR mutations. These efforts are yielding predictive models that inform treatment decisions.
A recent $23.7 million ARPA-H award, for which I serve as principal investigator, is propelling our research into mechanisms of resistance for immunotherapy. Understanding why patients develop resistance to various treatments such as targeted therapies, immunotherapies, or chemotherapy is critical. City of Hope’s basic scientists, translational researchers, and clinicians are working together to devise more effective and personalized therapeutics with fewer side effects.
City of Hope’s research is driving new drug development. For example, my lab determined preclinically that carfilzomib combined with sotorasib overcomes sotorasib resistance in KRAS (G12C) adenocarcinomas. These findings have now translated into an ongoing clinical trial. Other investigator-initiated research include Osimertinib with minnelide being tested to overcome EGFR resistance—based on preclinical data from Binghui Shen, PhD. Then there is AOH1996, developed by City of Hope’s Linda Malkas, PhD, that is showing preclinical promise in patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer.
For Lung Cancer Awareness Month, let’s reaffirm our commitment to advancing science, improving outcomes, and ultimately, curing lung cancer.
Clinical trials are central to our mission to fast-track the cures of tomorrow to patients today. Drugs developed at City of Hope, in partnership with biotech, pharma, and others, are available not only at our main campuses in Duarte and Orange County, California, but also in Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, and across our national network. City of Hope’s national clinical trial network ensures patients should be able to access cutting-edge therapies close to home, eliminating geographic barriers to participation.
Lastly, I appreciate The Cancer Letter’s coverage of the California fires earlier this year (especially the Eaton and Palisades fires). Environmental factors such as pollution from wildfires remain a pressing concern. Fires in Southern California and beyond contribute to lung cancer risk, compounding the effects of smoking and genetic predisposition. We’re seeing more young, non-smoking patients—especially women—diagnosed with lung cancer. City of Hope’s research into germline genetics, led by colleagues like Stephen Gruber, MD, PhD, MPH and Stacy Gray, MD, AM, is uncovering inherited genes that may contribute to disease susceptibility.
Looking ahead, our greatest challenge—and opportunity—is to cure lung cancer, including stage 4 disease. We’ve made significant progress in non-small cell lung cancer, but small cell lung cancer remains formidable. The future lies in controlling and curing advanced disease, and I am optimistic that City of Hope’s collaborative, innovative approach will make this vision a reality. It is heartening to see many groups across the world coming together to help in the fight against lung cancer.
For Lung Cancer Awareness Month, let’s reaffirm our commitment to advancing science, improving outcomes, and ultimately, curing lung cancer.
City of Hope® is one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S. To learn more about City of Hope, visit: www.cityofhope.org.
Discover the latest innovations in cancer research on City of Hope’s new podcast, “On the Edge of Breakthrough: Voices of Cancer Research.” Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and at cityofhope.org/edge-of-breakthrough.
