Grant: Operating Grant - PA: Cancer Research (bridge funding)

There is an enormous urgency for new and innovative treatments for patients with lung cancer. In this common and deadly disease, chemotherapy has provided only marginal benefits for patients with metastatic disease with platin based agents showing the greatest efficacy. These results have been disappointing and the laboratory of Dr. Dimitroulakos is evaluating novel approaches to enhance the tumour cell killing of platins. To this end, we recently identified a cellular stress response pathway, as a regulator of the tumour cell cytotoxicity induced by platin chemotherapeutics. In this study, we will perform a comprehensive analysis of the role of the cellular stress response pathway mediated by activating transcription factor 3 in platin induced tumour cell death. We will evaluate the mechanism by which platins induce this pathway and the mechanism by which the stress pathway regulates platin induced cell death. The goal of this study is to determine if inducers of this stress pathway in combination with platins represents a novel therapeutic approach.