Nan Sethakorn, PhD

Research Project:
Testing New Treatments for Lung Cancer That Has Spread to Bone

Grant Awarded:

Lung Cancer Discovery Award

Research Topics:

basic biologic mechanisms
biomarkers
combination therapies experimental therapeutics
modeling

Research Disease:

lung cancer

Targeted therapies are highly effective in certain types of lung cancer. However non-cancerous cells around tumors can promote lung cancer growth. Targeted therapies do not work as well in lung cancer that has spread to bone, which occurs frequently. It is likely that multiple bone cells prevent treatments from working. We developed methods to grow lung cancer and non-cancerous cells from patients in miniaturized tissue chips to test new treatments. Using our miniaturized tissue chips, we can recreate the bone environment, aim to identify factors that promote lung cancer growth in bone, and test new treatments to combat this. We also aim to identify markers in blood to determine which patients are at risk for bone metastases before they can be detected on routine scans. These patients may benefit from earlier treatment with bone-strengthening drugs that are already known to prevent fractures from cancer that spread to bone. These results would support a future clinical trial to test this question.

Page last updated: October 7, 2024

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