Press Release: Four Major US Cancer Centers Advance RET+ Lung Cancer Research

FOUR MAJOR US CANCER CENTERS ADVANCE RET POSITIVE LUNG CANCER RESEARCH

A quarterly “check-in” Zoom between four major American cancer centers was held to advance final proposals for clinically relevant RET-driven non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) research to be funded by the Happy Lungs Project (HLP).

On Friday, March 25,  the Stanford Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, MD Anderson, and Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer centers, with their various clinicians and research staff members, outlined projects in their combined areas of clinical NSCLC research, along with specific goals in three areas:

1. Continued development of an international RET registry, or “RETgistry,” as a repository for clinical patient data and specimens; aggregation of this information will facilitate laboratory investigation of RET positive NSCLC and future targeted drug testing;

2. Laboratory and mouse models of RET inhibitor resistance, and drug screening for novel combination therapies against RET inhibitor resistance; and

3. Immunotherapy for RET positive NSCLC, including development of vaccines.

“RET-driven NSCLC often affects a younger, non-smoking population,” according to Dr. Steven Artandi, Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Dr. Artandi is joined on the HLP Clinical Advisory Board by Dr. John Heymach, Chair of Thoracic Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center; Dr. Justin Gainor, Director of the Center for Thoracic Cancers at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Dr. Alexander Drilon, Chief of the Early Drug Development Service and Medical Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The Happy Lungs Project is a 501C3 public charity whose goals include supporting NSCLC research and educating the public about this highly fatal form of cancer.