Potential Novel Lung Cancer Cure Identified in Study

Lung cancer has caused the most cancer deaths, accounting for around one-third of all tumor-based fatalities, Non-Small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) adenocarcinoma would comprise 40 percent of all cancer diagnoses, but available treatments are few.

Treatment Studied in Reducing Tumor Growth

A team of researchers studied a novel agent, PTC596, which can reduce tumor growth in preclinical research on a mouse model with mutant K-RAS lung cancer. The study, "Identification of a targetable KRAS-mutant epithelial population in non-small cell lung cancer," was published in the Communications Biology journal.

Its findings, which show a comprehensive look at the tumor's components will help in the development of novel treatments to surmount relapses and tumor growth in patients suffering from NSCLC.

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Utilizing a single-cell RNA sequencing methodology, the researchers sampled the entire transcriptome (the full set of RNA molecules extracted by a cell) of tumor cells from the team's mouse model and from clinical pulmonary specimens.

Aside from emphasizing an elevated degree of similarities between the species, the researchers also pinpointed a specific set of tumor cells in humans and mice that are present merely in tumors positive for the mutated oncogene K-RAS and not lung cells that are in the pink.

Researchers also utilized the mouse model to analyze a novel treatment currently in Phase 1b clinical trials.

Novel Drug to Eliminate Cancer Cells

They found out that the PTC596 drug would eliminate cancer cells by restraining the activity of the BM1 oncogene.

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"Identifying these molecular networks underlying cancer is an important step toward producing newly targeted drugs-so-called molecular or personalized therapy," research team lead Dr. Elena Levatini, Ph.D., a research associate in the Hematology-Oncology at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center (BIDMC) said in the study.

"Currently, most patients receive generalized chemotherapy treatments which do not target the specific molecules involved in the tumor process, which can also cause damage to healthy cells. Until we are able to decipher the complexity of the tumor cell subpopulations, we will not be able to design targeted therapeutic options to decrease the number of patients who experience tumor recurrence," noted Levatini, who is also an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Significant Implications for Other Types of Cancers

Researchers previously recognized the important role BM1 portrays in the growth of tumors. With their study, the researchers made it possible for future clinical applications in using the new treatment option for lung cancer sufferers who are K-RAS mutated.

They note that careful validation is necessary prior to treat patients with the new therapeutic option. The findings might have significant implications for other types of cancers since the oncogene BM1 activity is considerably increased in various lung cancer subtypes and in solid tumors such as breast, intestinal, colon, and skin cancer, and in leukemia and lymphoma.