Grant: Project Grant

Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and causes more deaths than any other type of cancer in Canada. There are two major types of lung cancer, termed either small cell lung cancer (SCLC) or non-small cell lung cancer (non-SCLC). Of these two types, SCL has the worst outcomes with the average patient surviving less than one year after diagnosis. Unfortunately, there are very few treatment options for patients with SCLC, and the treatment options and survival rates for patients with SCLC have not improved in decades. The overall goal of our research is to advance our understanding of how patients develop SCLC, how SCLC progresses in patients and how we can better treat patients living with SCLC. One way in which patients develop SCLC is that they start with non-SCLC but, when they are treated for non-SCLC, the cancer changes and becomes SCLC. This is a serious problem because that change causes drug resistance: the original treatment used for non-SCLC does not work against SCLC. Unfortunately, we do not know how non-SCLC is able to change to SCLC. Our research concerning what the underlying causes of SCLC are, including how non-SCLC is able to change to SCLC, is critically important. This understanding will, in turn, help us identify new and improved treatments for SCLC so that patients living with this devastating cancer will have longer lives and better outcomes.