Young Investigators awarded $200k to study how the body’s own defense mechanisms may be used in the fight against lung cancer

Publisher: The Insight Partners

Two new $200,000 grant-funded studies supported by the Lung Cancer Foundation of America, the International Lung Cancer Foundation, and generously funded in part by Bristol-Myers Squibb, are investigating the interaction between lung cancer immunotherapy and the microbiome. The microbiome is the environment of trillions of bacteria, fungi and other microbes that play a very important role in your health. Immunotherapy harnesses the body’s own immune system to help fight cancer.

The grants were awarded to:

• Dr. Jarushka Naidoo - Assistant Professor of Oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Jarushka Naidoo is a clinical/translational investigator, specializing in immunotherapy for lung cancer, and immune-related toxicity. Dr. Naidoo’s research focus is on identifying novel biomarkers of response and toxicity to immunotherapy, and specifically for patients with lung cancer.

• Dr. Daniel J. Spakowicz - Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Medical Oncology and Department of Biomedical Informatics at the Ohio State University (OSU)

Dr. Daniel J. Spakowicz’s Young Investigator-funded research studies the interplay between the microbiome and immunotherapy (IO) responses, which is an area of high importance as IO therapy becomes more common in the treatment of advanced lung cancer. His overarching aim is to predict overall survival, progression-free survival and immune-related adverse events in lung cancer patients. 

LCFA/ILC Foundation research grants have helped direct almost $4 million toward lung cancer research in order to attract the best and the brightest to the field of lung cancer. LCFA’s goal is to fund the best research to make the largest possible positive impact for lung cancer patients. Donations go toward funding the best in science projects, peer-reviewed by our world-renowned Scientific Advisory Board.
LCFA also educates patients and their families on the latest information about lung cancer treatments and research as they move from diagnosis to treatment. To accomplish this, LCFA created the innovative Hope With Answers? video series featuring patients currently living with lung cancer as they interview top doctors.

Lung Cancer Foundation of America mission statement:

The support and expansion of lung cancer research accomplished by raising funds that serve to: 

1. increase the public’s awareness of lung cancer’s status as the leading cause of cancer death 
2. inform and educate lung cancer patients in their lung cancer journey and 
3. fund innovative lung cancer research