On Jun. 10, 2019, the Winship Cancer Institute was awarded a five-year, $9.7 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant from the National Cancer Institute to study new approaches for lung cancer treatment. It was the first and only grant of its kind to be awarded in the state of Georgia and one of only four SPORE grants in the U.S. dedicated to lung cancer.

“We will investigate how to improve immunotherapy for patients, how to test novel targeted therapies to overcome resistance, and how to accelerate new treatment paradigms,” says Ramalingam, Winship’s deputy director and contact principal investigator for the new grant. “By conducting cutting-edge clinical trials that build on a very strong biological basis, we will improve outcomes for patients with lung cancer.”

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. An estimated 228,000 new cancers will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, with more than 7,000 in Georgia alone.

Ramalingam explains that there are challenges with immunotherapy and targeted therapies currently being used to treat lung cancer patients. He says, “Immunotherapy only works for a subset of patients. Our goal is to understand why some patients do well and what we can do to benefit a greater group of patient.”

While targeted therapies are effective in treating lung cancer, over time, most patients develop resistance to the drugs. Ramalingam and his colleagues will investigate how to overcome the resistance so that patients can continue to be on extended therapies and carry on with their lives.