Stem Cells in Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the most deadly cancer worldwide and accounts for more deaths than prostate cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer combined. Non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for about 85% of all lung cancers. The current 5-year survival rate for all stages of NSCLC is only 15%. Although early stage lung cancer has a much better survival rate. Current therapeutic strategies of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and trials with new targeted therapies have only demonstrated, at best, extension in survival by a few months. Clearly, a novel approach is required to develop new therapies for this devastating disease and to detect the disease at an early stage. Cancer stem cells have been identified as the initial cell in the formation of carcinomas. Chemotherapy, radiation and even targeted therapies are all designed to eliminate dividing cells. However, cancer stem cells “hide out” in the quiescent phase of growth. This provides an explanation as to why our cancer therapies may produce an initial response but are often unsuccessful in curing patients. Lung cancer develops through a series of step wise changes that result in the progression of pre-malignant lesions to invasive lung cancer. The mechanisms of how lung cancer develops are not known and if we can prevent the formation of pre-malignant lesions, we will likely be able to prevent lung cancer. We have discovered a subpopulation of stem cells that circulates in the blood and is essential for normal lung repair. Blocking these cells from entering the lung results in a pre-malignant condition in the lungs. We have also identified a subpopulation of stem cells in the lung that is responsible for generating pre-malignant lung cancer lesions. We hypothesize that the interaction between the stem cells in the blood and the stem cells in the lung are critical to prevent lung cancer. We plan to use cutting edge technologies to characterize these different stem cell populations in the lung, and determine how they form pre-malignant lung cancer lesions. We also plan to use preclinical models to try to prevent lung cancer by giving additional stem cells derived from the blood as a therapy. Lastly, we plan to determine whether levels of stem cells in the blood in patients may be used as a blood test to measure the chance of recurrence of lung cancer after therapy. The long term goals of our work are to develop a screening test for lung cancer stem cells that can predict which patients are at high risk for developing lung cancer in order to diagnose lung cancer at an early stage, and to potentially develop a new stem cell based therapy for preventing and treating lung cancer.