Lung-MAP--A Bold Initiative To Find New Treatments For Squamous Cell Lung Cancer--Launches Today

Today marks a major step forward in cancer clinical trials and drug development with the launch of the Lung-MAP protocol to evaluate new treatments for squamous cell lung cancer, a common cancer which has proven resistant to the standard drugs currently available. In response to this genuine unmet need, Lung-MAP has been designed to move new therapies more quickly from the laboratory to the bedside of patients afflicted with this serious disease and few options available. Many--including present company--have written about the need to improve this process. We are in a new era of cancer drug development, spearheaded by our ever increasing knowledge of cancer genes and the targets within those genes that can be used to disrupt the cancer cell on its inexorable road to proliferation and destruction. Getting those drugs speedily through development and clinical testing has been a real challenge. And, going forward, finding the patients with the "right" genomic signature who are candidates to receive these therapies is going to be difficult. In simple terms, we need to find the patients where they live and match them to these new drugs as quickly as possible. And that hopefully will translate into more and better treatments for patients, and save lives. The Lung-MAP program is a bold new approach that could serve as a model for clinical trials of new drugs in lung cancer and a number of other cancers if it goes well. A program put together by a collaboration of public and private...
Source: Dr. Len's Cancer Blog - Category: Cancer Authors: Tags: Access to care Cancer Care Lung Cancer Medications Research Tobacco Treatment Source Type: blogs