University of Southampton experts make breakthrough with lung cancer research
Researchers say they've found more severe lung cancers could be switching their identities
University of Southampton researchers say lung cancers could be switching their identities to resist treatment.
The findings could help doctors to know which patients are likely to respond well to treatment and provide more personalised care.
They also open the door to developing new treatments aimed at stopping cancer cells from switching identity.
Dr Chris Hanley, Associate Professor in Cancer Science at the University of Southampton and senior author on the paper, said: "Our lungs develop in a similar way to trees, through a branching process in which the trachea divides into two bronchi that repeatedly split into smaller and smaller branches.
“Once the branches are formed this process is switched off and the body then uses another process to form millions of alveoli — tiny air sacs where oxygen enters the blood — like the leaves at the ends of a tree’s branches.
“We’ve discovered that in some severe lung cancers, cells revert from their alveoli forming state to their branching state. This helps the cancer to grow, become more aggressive and harder to treat.
“By measuring genes related to branching in samples from patients, we're able to predict how well they might respond to different treatments.”
Researchers analysed over 1,500 patients' samples from previous cancer study cohorts to understand why some patients don't respond well to current treatments like chemotherapy or immunotherapy.
The discovery was made that a biological process normally activated during the early stages of lung formation was being switched back on, and that this was a key driver of disease progression.
Mr Hanley says the findings could open the doors to future research and treatments.