A key protein, named Mcl-1, allows lung cancer tumors to survive radiation and drug treatments, according to a recent study.
About 160,000 people in the United States are expected to die from lung cancer this year, and 85 percent of those cases are because of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer among men and women, accounting for more than one in four cancer deaths in the United States annually. The five-year survival rate for advanced NSCLC is less than 10 percent.
Previous studies have shown that a signaling mechanism in the body known as TWEAK-Fn14 is linked to the survival and spread of cancer cells when it is over-activated. The new study found that Mcl-1 helps enable TWEAK-Fn14, which in turn helps protect NSCLC tumors from being destroyed by radiation and drugs.
The discovery is potentially life saving.
"By deactivating Mcl-1, we believe we can give these lung cancer patients a better response to standard therapy," Dr. Timothy Whitsett, an assistant professor in TGen's Cancer and Cell Biology Division and one of the study's lead authors, said in a statement.
Laboratory researchers found that a drug called EU-5148 could block Mcl-1 and freeze the TWEAK-Fn14 mechanism in these patients.
"This work positions both the TWEAK-Fn14 cellular pathway and the Mcl-1 protein as potential therapeutic interventions," said senior author Dr. Nhan Tran, an associate professor in TGen's Cancer and Cell Biology Division. "Our evidence shows that, if we can bypass these mechanisms, it will be more difficult for these lung cancer cells to evade therapies."
The authors note that further investigation via clinical trials on Mcl-1 and TWEAK-Fn14 is needed.
