Lung Cancer
Our group is dedicated to understanding the pathogenesis and evolution of lung cancer. We aspire to apply this knowledge to create newer, more effective anti-cancer therapies.
Each year, lung cancer kills more people than the next three most common cancers (breast, colon and prostate), combined. Promising new research in the last decade—from our laboratory and from other research groups at Dana-Farber and throughout the world—has driven development of treatments that have extended and vastly improved the lives of patients with this lethal malignancy. Despite these significant advances, however, we are still far from a cure.
The questions that intrigue us are:
In 2004, Dr. Meyerson, along with Dana-Farber colleagues, demonstrated the existence of oncogenic mutations in EGFR that were directly linked to the response of lung cancer patients to the EGFR-targeting drug, gefitinib. This was a defining moment in cancer research, as the study provided the first molecular insights into the efficacy and impact of targeted therapies, presaging today's "precision medicine" approach to cancer care.
Our laboratory recently led the most comprehensive study to date on genomic alterations in lung cancer (Campbell et al., 2016, Nature Genetics), building on our other recent efforts to fully understand genomic alterations in this disease (Imielinski et al., 2012, Cell; The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, 2014, Nature; The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, 2012, Nature). These studies have shed light on the incredible genomic complexity of lung cancer and have revealed mutations in a variety of known and novel oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, as well as multiple DNA sequence rearrangements.
We have discovered novel genomic alterations in lung adenocarcinoma in the EGFR, BRAF, U2AF1, RBM10, TERT, NKX2-1, MGA, MAP2K1 and RIT1 genes and in SOX2, FGFR2, FGFR3, and HLA-A in squamous cell lung carcinomas.
Dr. Meyerson is a principal investigator of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) research program of the National Cancer Institute and his group heads TCGA's Genome Characterization Center at the Broad Institute. He is also co-chair of TCGA’s lung cancer disease working group with Dr. Ramaswamy Govindan.
Each year, lung cancer kills more people than the next three most common cancers (breast, colon and prostate), combined. Promising new research in the last decade—from our laboratory and from other research groups at Dana-Farber and throughout the world—has driven development of treatments that have extended and vastly improved the lives of patients with this lethal malignancy. Despite these significant advances, however, we are still far from a cure.
The questions that intrigue us are:
- How do normal cells in the human lung become cancerous? Specifically, what changes in the DNA of lung cells trigger the development of tumors?
- How do somatic genome alterations seen in lung cancer impact cellular function?
- Finally, how can we use our knowledge of the unique behaviors and vulnerabilities of cancer cells to design therapies to treat—and ultimately cure—patients with lung cancer?
In 2004, Dr. Meyerson, along with Dana-Farber colleagues, demonstrated the existence of oncogenic mutations in EGFR that were directly linked to the response of lung cancer patients to the EGFR-targeting drug, gefitinib. This was a defining moment in cancer research, as the study provided the first molecular insights into the efficacy and impact of targeted therapies, presaging today's "precision medicine" approach to cancer care.
Our laboratory recently led the most comprehensive study to date on genomic alterations in lung cancer (Campbell et al., 2016, Nature Genetics), building on our other recent efforts to fully understand genomic alterations in this disease (Imielinski et al., 2012, Cell; The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, 2014, Nature; The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, 2012, Nature). These studies have shed light on the incredible genomic complexity of lung cancer and have revealed mutations in a variety of known and novel oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, as well as multiple DNA sequence rearrangements.
We have discovered novel genomic alterations in lung adenocarcinoma in the EGFR, BRAF, U2AF1, RBM10, TERT, NKX2-1, MGA, MAP2K1 and RIT1 genes and in SOX2, FGFR2, FGFR3, and HLA-A in squamous cell lung carcinomas.
Dr. Meyerson is a principal investigator of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) research program of the National Cancer Institute and his group heads TCGA's Genome Characterization Center at the Broad Institute. He is also co-chair of TCGA’s lung cancer disease working group with Dr. Ramaswamy Govindan.