A MOLECULAR LIBRARY AGAINST LUNG CANCER

In our country, each year, 28,645 new cases of lung cancer are detected, the most common cancer in the world. In 2017, lung cancer caused 26% of all cancer deaths.
Now, a new research, published in Cell, provides new active principles to treat this type of tumors. After testing more than 200,000 chemical compounds, a team led by John Minna, has identified 170 chemicals, all potential candidates for the development of pharmacological therapies for lung cancer.

The project, which has lasted 5 years, aimed to identify new therapeutic targets for lung cancer, as well as potential drugs for these purposes, a significant step towards the personalization of cancer care.

“For the vast majority of compounds,” Minna explains in a statement, “we identified a predictive biomarker, a characteristic that allows the development of precision medicine or individualized treatment for each patient.”

Using the unique lung cancer cell library at Texas Southwestern University, the largest in the world, the Minna team looked for compounds that would attack cancer cells but not damage normal lung cells.

“We started an ambitious project – continues MInna – with the objective of identifying therapeutic triads: chemical substances that destroy cancer cells, biomarkers that predict who would respond and therapeutic objectives in which these active chemicals work .. Initially we obtained 15,000 possible chemicals, too many to work in detail, but with the repetition of tests we eventually managed to reduce the number to 170. ”
This selection has been tested on 100 lung cancer lines. The follow-up work will include testing the chemicals in other types of cancer.