Understanding why treatments don’t work for some non-smoking lung cancer patients

Meet the scientist

Professor Rocio Sotillo is based at the German Cancer Research Center, supported by a program that recognises excellent female researchers. Her lab studies how chromosomes (which are made up of genes) can become unstable and what that means for cancer development and progression.

The science

All cancers are ultimately caused by changes to the genes that usually control how cells spread and multiply. However, many different genes can become faulty and lead to the development of cancer. This means that there can be differences in the way tumours behave between individual patients even if they have the same type of cancer.

Some specific changes to genes are seen more commonly in lung cancer patients that are non-smokers, such as the ALK gene. If the cells in a lung tumour carry a mutation of the ALK gene, it is called ALK-positive lung cancer. Treatments called ALK inhibitors can be effective for patients who are ALK-positive. However, some patients develop resistance and their cancer ends up coming back. This suggests that there, not all ALK-positive lung cancers are the same. Research has shown that other genes in these tumours can also be faulty, and this could make it easier for tumours to grow and resist treatment.

Professor Sotillo and her team are using state-of-the-art techniques to study why different changes to these faulty genes, and combinations of them, can result in tumours that grow at different rates and develop resistance to treatment. They also hope to understand how new changes in these genes can affect a patient’s chance of successful treatment and survival. In the near future, this could help personalise cancer treatment for lung cancer patients, ensuring that patients receive the best possible treatment.