Lung cancer is the # 1 cause of cancer deaths. Current standard of care chemotherapies, such docetaxel, work by killing fast growing cells and response varies greatly between cancers. As such, only 1-15% of lung cancer patients see benefit from docetaxel treatment and resistance is widespread. New targeted therapies and immunotherapies work on cancer more specifically and have led to modest improvements in survival in 15-25% of lung cancer patients.

In their project titled Targeted Radiotherapy as an Alternative Combination Therapy for Lung Cancer principle investigators Dr. Humphrey Fonge and Dr. Maruti Uppalapati from the University of Saskatchewan will test a new radiotherapy targeting a protein called Nectin-4 on its own and in combination with existing immunotherapies like pembrolizumab. This approach will provide a basis for future phase I clinical trials.