Lung cancer research to target drug therapy resistance

A new grant will ensure research is undertaken into the resistance to drug therapy lung cancer cells can develop

When someone is diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer — one of two main forms of lung cancer — there is a 70-80% chance that after 14 months the cancer will develop a resistance to the drug therapy originally given to fight it.

If that happens, there aren’t many treatment options currently available. That’s why Raghuraman Kannan, the Michael J and Sharon R Bukstein Chair in Cancer Research at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, is determined to find a solution.

“We want to find out why patients are becoming resistant to the therapeutic agent and determine how we can help them overcome that challenge,” he said.

Kannan and a team of researchers recently received a $2.35m (~£2.1m) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to generate preclinical data based on their existing research – the required step before human clinical trials can begin.

Previously, the team identified two genes involved in the development of this drug resistance. Now, with the help of this grant, researchers will be able to test the approach they developed to prevent resistance.

silencing rna

Kannan said their approach combines a biological process called RNA interference (RNAi) with protein-based nanoparticles. The nanoparticles will help safely deliver the RNA to the cancer tumour and cause the resistance to stop. This, in turn, will allow the cancer to be more responsive to the efforts of the original drug therapy.

He said: “Through RNAi, we have something called a silencing RNA (siRNA).

“As the name suggests, it silences the gene of interest, which in this case are the two genes causing this drug resistance.

But siRNAs are inherently unstable in blood, so we must develop a technology to deliver this siRNA to the [cancer] tumour. That’s where the nanoparticle comes in.”

cancer drug delivery

Kannan has created similar nanoparticle-based drug delivery methods to develop treatments for ovarian, breast, pancreatic and liver cancers.

He has written more than 55 papers and holds seven patents, and he has said that his ultimate goal is to make his work more accessible, so doctors can use it to help more patients.

Image: Raghuraman Kannan, right, and a team of researchers at the University of Missouri recently received a $2.35 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to generate preclinical data based on their existing research — the required step before human clinical trials can begin.