UCLA Health researchers at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have recently won a pair of grants worth in total nearly $2 million to continue development of drug therapies targeting lung cancer and melanomas.

The first grant was awarded by the V Foundation for Cancer Research to Roger Lo, professor of medicine, dermatology and molecular/medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The $1 million “All-Star” grant from the V Foundation (co-founded by the famed basketball coach Jim Valvano who died of cancer in 1993) is to develop strategies to prevent relapse in patients with advanced melanoma by targeting drug resistance before it takes root.

While many cancer treatments can be highly effective at first, cancers often become resistant over time. According to UCLA Health’s June 30 award announcement, this acquired resistance is driven by the cancer’s ability to alter its DNA. Lo and his team aim to prevent resistance pathways from developing in the first place. This involves blocking residual tumor cells, left unscathed by the therapies, from mutating their DNA and evolving escape pathways.

The team will focus initially on analysis of patient-derived tumors collected over time to uncover how the residual cells, which they have dubbed “persister” cells, have changed and adapted. Then they plan to use genetic analysis of patient tumor samples, along with pre-clinical models, to test new therapeutic strategies designed to block cancer persisters’ ability to mutate and evolve. 

“Our goal is to uncouple the word ‘relapse’ from ‘remission’ in peoples’ cancer journeys,” Lo said in the announcement. “This work has the potential to shift the way we treat advanced cancers, from reacting to relapses to actively preventing them,” he added.

This is the fourth grant Lo and his teams of cancer researchers have received from the V Foundation.

Lung cancer focus

The second award of $950,000 is from the National Comprehensive Cancer Center Network and it has gone to a collaborative research effort led on the UCLA Health side by Arjan Gower, a hematologist and oncologist at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The other party in the collaboration is Taiho Oncology Inc., the Princeton, New Jersey-based subsidiary of Tokyo-based Taiho Pharmaceuticals.

According to the cancer center’s July 9 announcement, this team is studying a new targeted therapy for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer with rare changes, known as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, accounting for about one in five cancer fatalities. While advances in treatment have improved outcomes for many patients, those with certain genetic mutations such as alterations in the EGFR gene face more limited options.

The grant will be put toward the launch of clinical trials for the drug therapy, known as zipalertinib, which in this instance would be given to patients before deciding to proceed with surgery to remove lung cancer tumors.

“Targeted therapies have transformed the care for many patients with lung cancer, but those with uncommon EGFR mutations like Exon 20 still face significant gaps in treatment,” Gower said in the announcement. “Our goal is to bring precision medicine earlier into the treatment course for these patients and increase their chances of cure.”