MLS funding to better understand small cell lung cancer and improve treatment regimes.

Small cell lung cancer is an aggressive form of lung cancer notorious for its rapid progression and poor outcome.  The average survival time from diagnosis is only 9 months.  Chemotherapy is the most commonly used method of treatment as the disease is often too advanced at time of presentation for surgery to be a viable option.  There have not been any significant advances in the treatment available for small cell lung cancer in over 30 years.  This is likely to be due to the fact that these tumours are still poorly understood and the mechanism by which they form and progress remain unclear.  Dr Michael Thomas at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust has been awarded a Medical and Life Sciences Research Fund award to support his research.  Better understanding of the disease process and through this, the development of new methods of treatment could help improve the management and outcome for patients with small cell lung cancer. 

A particular protein know as brain angiogenesis inhibitor protein 3 (BA13) has been identified that seems to be overproduced in small cell lung cancer tumours and can act as a maker to identify them.  The function of BA13 in these tumours is not clear and it is not currently understood how it might contribute to the progression of the disease.  One theory is that the protein is modified in some way leading to a change in behaviour that contributes to cancer development.  This proposed study aims to extract BA13 from normal control tissue and from small cell cancer tumours.  These samples will then be used to investigate the differences in structure of BA13 in normal tissue compared to small cell cancer tissue.

If differences are found then this is maybe because BA13 is modified in these tumours.  This could help understand how the protein contributes to cancer progression.  Also, if this is found to be the case then BA13 could provide a target for drug therapies, providing new treatments and ultimately helping to improve disease outcomes.