Testing a brand new approach to treating lung cancer

Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide with 2 million people diagnosed each year. It also kills more people than any other type of cancer with an estimated 1.7 million deaths each year. Public health campaigns to cut back on the number of people smoking has had a positive impact on reducing the number of cases of lung cancer. But smoking is not the only cause and millions of people die each year because of a lack of effective treatments. 

Dr Juan Valcárcel, based at Centre de Regulació Genòmica, Barcelona, Spain, is developing a novel treatment for lung cancer. His team has already identified a potential weakness in lung cancer cells and shown that with their unique treatment technique they can exploit this weakness to prevent the growth of lung tumours in mice.