Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Inflammation is a well-known cause of cancer, and inflammatory lung diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD) have been associated with an increased risk of developing lung cancer. However, while the two diseases share known risk factors, the reasons why COPD airway damage leads to lung cancer are unknown. This includes the role of inflammation, which has been understudied regarding COPD-caused tumours. We believe that this damage causes gene expression changes that promote lung cancer formation by affecting airway cells and the immune response. Thus, the gene expression changes crucial to cancer growth would also be found in tumours forming in these regions. COPD-associated lung damage, and the resulting changes in gene expression, will be assessed in the lungs of 15 individuals (rare samples collected at St. Paul's Hospital). We will compare these changes in gene expression, along with differences in immune cell content, to those observed in each tumor to identify the changes most associated with cancer formation. Additionally, our lab has identified a set of gene expression alterations in the airways of COPD patients that may be characteristic to tumours forming in patients with COPD. We will see if these changes are also observed in this rare dataset and determine if these events can initiate cancer in normal lung cells by using CRISPR and virus-based techniques. Furthermore, we will determine if inhibiting these changes in mice can prevent tumour formation. My project aims to discover the mechanisms driving tumour formation in patients with COPD, and will reveal new targets for cancer therapy and methods of disease prevention.