Molecular Medicine for Lung Diseases

Question 0

4 actionable pathways involved in lung cancers?

Answer 0

EGFR
EML4/ALK
ROS-1
BRAF
(not sure if this is really important to know... this list will grow)

Question 1

Sometimes there are treatments that don’t work for most people, but work really really well for a few people. Should that be looked into?

Answer 1

It should be - you might even find out that a subset of lung cancer is due to activation of the EGFR pathway.

Question 2

How do anti-CTLA4 and anti-PD1 antibodies work?

Answer 2

They inhibit the inactivation of T cells -> releasing the brakes on anti-tumor activity.
(but these only work if the tumor is expressing the ligands for these receptors…)

Question 3

What’s the idea behind immuno-gene therapy?

For what cancer are people trying to make it work?

Answer 3

Transfect tumor cells with an immunogenic gene… stimulating an immune response against the tumor.

Question 4

What was a gene transfected into tumor cells in order to stimulate an immune response against them?

Answer 4

Interferon-beta.

which stimulates an anti-viral, cell-mediated cytolytic response

Question 5

What does adoptive transfer of T cells refer to?

Answer 5

Transgenic T cells with a antibody (eg. against mesothelin) fused to the cytosolic domain of the T cell receptor. These can be transferred into patient, and ideally they’ll then attack the tumor.