Lung cancer

New combination therapy to reduce side effects in lung cancer treatment

Kairbaan Hodivala-Dilke is a Professor of Tumour Microenvironment at Queen Mary University of London, and Deputy Director of Barts Cancer Institute.

Lung cancer is still the biggest cause of cancer deaths, with around 35,000 in the UK each year. Standard lung cancer treatment combines chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, but this often fails because of relapse, side effects and damage to the immune system.

Professor Kairbaan Hodivala-Dilke and her team are developing a new type of drug, known as an RGD-mimetic, which has already been shown in laboratory studies to reduce tumour growth and cause fewer side effects when combined with lower doses of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. They will now study these drugs in human lung cancer models, to get a better understanding of how they improve the effectiveness of treatment and reduce side effects.