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Groups join forces to fund KRAS mutation cancer-specific research

NEW YORK, NY (January 31, 2022) – The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) and KRAS Kickers are excited to announce a partnership aimed at raising much needed funds for research. Together they to pledge to fund at least one two-year grant in 2022 with the goal of improving outcomes for people with KRAS-mutant lung cancer.

KRAS is the most common mutation in non-small cell lung cancer patients, making up about 30% of driver mutations in lung adenocarcinoma. KRAS was considered undruggable until last year’s FDA approval of sotorasib, which targets KRAS G12C, a small subset of KRAS-mutant cancer. Even with the approval of sotorasib, the bulk of patients with the KRAS mutation do not have a first-line drug therapy, underscoring the need for additional research for more treatment options to bring hope to this large subgroup of lung cancer patients. LCRF is proud to have funded nearly $1.3 million in KRAS-specific lung cancer research to date. 

KRAS Kickers is a non-profit patient founded organization with a mission to connect people to current research, resources, and community to kick cancer’s KRAS. KRAS Kickers empowers patients, brings doctors and researchers with cutting-edge information together in an approachable virtual patient community.

“Having KRAS brings us together as KRAS Kickers,” says KRAS Kickers founder Terri Conneran, who was diagnosed with KRAS lung cancer in 2017. “This is one of the alliances for KRAS Knowledge, Research, Advocacy for Survivorship. We choose to work together, for better KRAS lung cancer treatments.”

“We are thrilled to work with KRAS Kickers,” said Dennis Chillemi, LCRF Executive Director. “Partnering with this extraordinary group will no doubt allow us to better understand this particular mutation and uncover more treatment options for these patients. We are confident that this partnership will accelerate research discovery in this area.” 

Donate towards KRAS-specific research

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About the Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) 
The Lung Cancer Research Foundation® (LCRF) is the leading nonprofit organization focused on funding innovative, high-reward research with the potential to extend survival and improve quality of life for people with lung cancer. LCRF’s mission is to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure of lung cancer. To date, LCRF has funded 383 research grants, totaling nearly $36 million, the highest amount provided by a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding lung cancer research. For more information, visit lcrf.org. 

About KRAS Kickers 
KRAS Kickers is a non-profit for people impacted by any KRAS oncogene cancer, including patients, survivors and all who care. Empowering people with KRAS Knowledge, Research, Advocating and Survivorship. KRAS is the cancer mutation in one third of all cancers.  Including the three deadliest, lung, colorectal and pancreatic. The KRAS Kickers are a community for all people that want to better understand and find best treatments.

Posted in Announcements, PartnershipsTagged

The American Cancer Society just released its annual Cancer Facts and Figures, and it included good news about lung cancer. More lung cancer is being detected early, and that’s contributing to the increasing survival rates for patients.

Overall cancer mortality rates have dropped steadily for nearly two decades, and a big part of that success is the progress in early detection and treatment options for lung cancer. Lung cancer deaths are declining faster than the overall trend. Cancer mortality in general dropped about 2% each year between 2015 and 2019, while lung cancer mortality dropped 5%.

Read more and download the report

Posted in Grants

Six dedicated supporters will be running the United Airlines NYC Half on March 20 and fundraising for lung cancer research. Below, meet the marathoners running the NYC Half on Team LCRF!

Support a runner with a donation

Meet the runners

Lauren works as a sales executive for VDX.tv. She shares that her proudest running accomplishment was when she ran the Chicago half marathon over 10 years ago – it was the farthest she had ever run.

“I am not a runner, but my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer in October of 2021. Feeling helpless and not sure where to channel my anger and fear, I thought that training for something that will raise money and awareness was a good start. She is the toughest person I know, so I can do my best and run 13.1 miles in honor of her.”

Isabella is an attorney, and her favorite running song is Stronger by Brittany Spears.

“I’m running in honor of my uncle, Christos Koutsis, who battled lung cancer for four years. After he passed, I became devoted to helping find a cure. I’m thrilled to be a part of Team LCRF because LCRF’s mission is to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of lung cancer.”

Julien is an analytical chemist, and Daphne is a Federal agent. Daphne’s proudest running accomplishment was in 2019, when she ran Marine Corps Marathon and the NYC Marathon a week apart.

“Our mother was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2021 and died three months later. This is for you, Maman.”

Julia, a 7th grade teacher, finished her first half marathon in 2020 with a time under two hours.

“I am running in memory of my Nana, Mary Carol Seaver. We lost her in 2015 to a genetic form of lung cancer. I am invested in honoring her legacy while supporting the lung cancer community in order to further research and provide hope!”

Sara is a program manager for CUNY and says that she loves to run to any playlist “with terrible pop hits from the 80s, 90s, and 00s.”

“I am running in honor of my mom, Bernice, who died in 2008 of non-small cell lung cancer. She was an immunologist and so supporting research and finding treatments for lung cancer feel like a great way to honor her. She was not a runner and thought my running was a weird hobby!”

Posted in Endurance Events

A new article, “Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Lung Cancer Clinical Trials: Why it matters to people with Lung Cancer,” has been accepted and published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology Clinical and Research Reports. The piece follows a global study commissioned by International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer; adding the patient advocate voices of the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, LUNGevity Foundation, Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, Lung Cancer Foundation of America, Lung Cancer Europe, and GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer.

Only 2-8% of people with cancer participate in clinical trials, an issue which has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the publication, the authors make recommendations for actions that stakeholders – regulatory agencies, non-pharmaceutical funders, and clinical trial investigators and sponsors – can implement long-term to increase access and remove barriers.

Representing LCRF as co-author is Eugene Manley, Jr., PhD, Director, Scientific Programs. Other co-authors are Upal Basu Roy, PhD, MPH, LUNGevity; Anne-Marie-Baird, PhD, Lung Cancer Europe; Andrew Ciupek, PhD, GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer; Jesme Fox, MBChB, MBA, Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation); Kim Norris, Lung Cancer Foundation of America; Giorgio V. Scagliotti, MD, PhD; Heather A. Wakelee, MD; Tetsuya Mitsudomi, MD; Russell C. Clark, JD; Renee Arndt, MS; Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD; Paul A. Bunn, MD; and Matthew P. Smeltzer, PhD.

Download and read the article (PDF)

Posted in In the News, Partnerships

AbbVie’s telisotuzumab vedotin (Teliso-V) was recently granted FDA Breakthrough Designation for use in patients with advanced or metastatic EGFR wild-type non-squamous NSCLC whose cancer has advanced or progressed after being treated with platinum-based therapy. The designation is based on the Phase 2 LUMINOSITY Trial (Study M14-239). Teliso-V is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting c-MET that is linked to monomethyl auriastatin E (MMAE) as a monotherapy in the second- or third-line setting. Currently, no therapies specifically target c-MET overexpressing NSCLC. 

The treatment is being administered in two additional studies. In the Phase 1 Study (MN14-237), Teliso-V is being administered with osimertinib to patients with NSCLC with c-MET overexpression that have been previously treated. In the Phase 3 TeliMet NSCLC001 (Study M18-868) Trial, the drug is used as a monotherapy in NSCLC patients with c-MET overexpression that have been previously treated.  Some of the data from these studies is expected to be presented at conferences this year.

Read more

Posted in FDA News

Studies have shown that 57% of Asian American women diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked. The Female Asian Never Smokers (FANS) study looks at possible causes of lung cancer including secondhand smoke, genetics, and cultural factors. Eligible participants include Asian American females (with and without lung cancer) between the ages of 21-90 who have never smoked and live in the greater San Francisco Bay area.

Scarlett Lin Gomez, PhD, MPH, and Iona Cheng, PhD, MPH are epidemiologists who study disparities through genetics, lifestyle factors, neighborhood characteristics, environment, and income related to cancer risk. Both are professors with the University of California – San Francisco Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, and have served as ad-hoc reviewers for the LCRF Research Grant on Disparities in Lung Cancer.

In the video below, Drs. Gomez and Cheng discuss the general impact of disparities in lung cancer care and specifically, disparities in FANS populations.

To learn more:

At right: download FANS infographic

A team member’s passing underlines the study’s importance

Dr. Patricia (Trish) Hom, MD, MPH, an integral member of the FANS Study team and Community Advisory Board, died of lung cancer on Dec. 27, 2021 at the age of 40.

Dr. Trish Hom

She shared her story with LCRF a few months before she passed away.

Dr. Hom was a surgical resident when she noticed she had a cough. “My junior resident had a cough too, or she had a cold, so I just brushed it off: ‘I have a cold, too.’ But her cough went away.”  As the senior resident, she decided to power through it. “It got worse and worse, but I just was like, oh, I have asthma. I have allergies, whatever.” Although she had learned about lung cancer in medical school, she didn’t relate it to her own symptoms.

Three days after graduating from her OB-GYN residency, Dr. Hom was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). She was 35 years old, never smoked, and had no family history of any type of cancer. In the four years after diagnosis, she suffered three progressions and at multiple times lost all function.

“I really think that we have to find out what risk factors are associated in our Asian American population, especially the women, because nobody knows,” she said. “Even if you have a cough – if you’re like, coughing for six months – you just brush it off because you’re healthy, you’re young.”

“And as a doctor, you know, it could happen to anyone. I had no idea. I’m an OB-GYN. My friends who were in residency didn’t know anything.”

Dr. Hom pointed out that the screening guidelines don’t include people like her. “We have to be made aware that if you have these kind of problems, it could be cognitive problems because of brain mets or shoulder pain from bone mets,” she said. “I think it’s very necessary for data from the FANS study and other studies like it to figure out what people are experiencing that are correlated with their lung cancer diagnosis.”

Read more about Dr. Hom in this profile by Cancer Health.

Posted in Disparities, Women & Lung Cancer

Eugene Manley, Jr., PhD, LCRF’s Director of Scientific Programs, compiled the following list of FDA drug approvals for lung cancer treatment taking place in 2021. The associated companion diagnostics have been included where applicable. “Companion diagnostics are devices, tests, or imaging tools that provide information essential to the use of the therapeutic product,” Dr. Manley explained. “In general, they are associated with detecting mutations and are necessary for optimally selecting treatment for patients.”

Approvals are listed in date order. Download a PDF chart

Dr. Roy Herbst

Additional reading: Dr. Roy Herbst talks about recent progress

Feb 3

Tepotinib (Tepmetko®; Merck KGaA/EMD Serono) approved for MET exon 14 skipping metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); given orally

  • Trial: phase 2 VISION
Feb 22

Cemiplimab-rwlc (Libtayo®; Regeneron and Sanofi) approved for advanced NSCLC (locally advanced, not resection candidates or definitive chemoradiation or metastatic), with high PD-L1 expression with no EGFR, ALK, or ROS1 aberrations; monoclonal antibody given intravenously

  • Trial: phase 3 EMPOWER – Lung 1
March 3

Lorlatinib (Lorbrena®; Pfizer) approved for ALK+ metastatic NSCLC not receiving prior systemic therapy for metastatic disease; given orally

  • Trial: phase 3 study B7461006
  • Companion diagnostic: Ventana ALK (D5F3) CDx Assay (Ventana Medical Systems)
May 21

Amivantamab-vmjw (Rybrevant®; Janssen Biotech) approved for EGFR exon 20+ locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC progressing on or after platinum-based chemo; bispecific EGFR and MET antibody given intravenously

  • Trial: phase 2 CHRYSALIS
  • Companion diagnostic: Guardant360® CDx (Guardant Health, Inc.)
May 28

Sotorasib (Lumakras; Amgen) approved for KRAS G12C+ locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC in patients receiving at least one prior systemic therapy

  • Trial: phase 2 CodeBreaK 100
  • Companion diagnostics: therascreen® KRAS RGQ PCR kit (QIAgen) tissue RT PCR diagnostic for KRAS; Guardant360® CDx (Guardant Health, Inc.), plasma liquid biopsy
Sept 15

Mobocertinib (Exkivity®; Takeda) approved for EGFR exon 20 insertion+ locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC with progression on or after platinum-based chemo; given orally

  • Trial: phase 1/2 Study 101
  • Companion diagnostic: Oncomine Dx Target Test (Life Technologies Corporation)
Oct 15

Atezolizumab (Tecentriq®; Genentech) approved as adjuvant treatment following resection and platinum-based chemo for patients with stage II to IIIA NSCLC with PD-L1 > 1% on tumor cells

  • Trial: phase 3 Impower010
  • Companion diagnostic: Ventana PD-L1 (SP263 Assay) (Ventana Medical Systems)
Posted in FDA NewsTagged
Dr. Roy Herbst
Dr. Roy Herbst

Dr. Roy Herbst, LCRF Scientific Advisory Board member, spoke with OncLive recently about the progress made in 2021 in lung cancer treatment. He also noted the need for more research to address acquired resistance.

The latest class of LCRF grant recipients includes several investigators whose projects are aimed at understanding and solving acquired resistance to targeted therapy. LCRF remains committed to funding science that addresses unmet need in lung cancer research, providing hope for people with a lung cancer diagnosis. #Research is our #TrueNorth.

Read the article here

Posted in Research