2013 Free to Breathe Young Investigator Research Grant
John Poirier, PhD
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Research Project:
Overcoming Small Cell Lung Cancer Drug Resistance
Summary:
Small cell lung cancer is a very aggressive form of cancer, and for many patients, treatments can stop working—the cancer becomes resistant to treatment. Dr. Poirier and his team have discovered that certain tumors can become resistant to specific targeted therapies, because a protein called Bax no longer works to help stop tumor cells from growing and dividing. Dr. Poirier will continue building an understanding of the role Bax plays in drug resistance, with the ultimate goal of making new, more effective treatments available for small cell lung cancer.