Landon Inge, Ph.D.

Dignity Health dba St. Joseph's Hospital & Medical Center
Targeting a Cellular Pathway to Treat a Type of Lung Cancer
Lung Cancer Discovery Award
Despite the application of aggressive therapies, lung cancer will lead to more deaths than any other malignancy. Scientists are trying to understand mutations involved in lung cancer in the hopes of developing new therapies. The tumor suppressor gene LKB1 is inactivated frequently in lung cancer. Loss of LKB1 function significantly alters the biology of lung cancer cells and requires LKB1-deficient lung cancer cells to rely on other signaling pathways to assist in maintaining growth and survival. We have evidence that LKB1-deficient lung cancers rely on a specific pathway to assist in survival. Using novel model systems, we will demonstrate that targeting this pathway will lead to a new approach to treat LKB1-deficient lung cancer.