Overview

The approach of the Lung and Thoracic Malignancies Program (LTMP) is to understand more, at the basic science level, about the biology and genetics of lung cancer and to apply that understanding to the three translational research goals:

  1. to improve early detection of lung cancer
  2. to improve therapy for lung cancer
  3. to identify individuals at high risk for lung cancer and develop effective strategies for prevent future lung cancer

The Program has research strengths in a wide variety of relevant areas, including growth factors and hormones and their receptors in the human airway; polymorphisms in metabolizing and DNA repair enzymes that may alter activation of carcinogens and processing of genetic damage induced by carcinogens; mechanisms of induction of radiation damage in cells and tissues, delivery of genes to the airway, lung cancer antigen discovery and vaccine development, and detection of occult metastases in esophageal and lung cancer, and airway epithelial cell biology.

The Lung and Thoracic Malignancies Program is also home to the UPCI Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Lung Cancer, which contains a Developmental Research Program — supplying funding for pilot studies in translational lung cancer research — and a Career Development Program that provides salary support for promising young investigators.

Major funded projects currently underway in the Program include: role of gastrin-releasing peptide and its receptor in lung cancer risk, role of estrogens in lung cancer, detection of micrometastases in lymph nodes by real-time RT-PCR, targeting of hepatocyte growth factor and its receptor cMet in lung cancer therapy, development of cyclin B1 peptides for lung cancer vaccines, detection of serum biomarkers for lung cancer by proteomic technology, and protection of normal tissues from radiation damage by transfer of the maganese superoxide dismutase gene. The Program is also carrying out a lung cancer screening study using multidetector computerized tomography in individuals at risk for lung cancer. These research projects are highly interdisciplinary in nature and involve investigators with clinical expertise, expertise in population studies, and expertise in the basic sciences.