Dusp4 Activity in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers: An Opportunity for Intervention?

Lung cancer is the leading killer of all cancers and Kentucky has the highest rate of incidence and mortality from this dreaded disease. Although lung cancer is the most preventable cancer, those who do not choose to stop smoking will likely become the population that most needs the best available treatment for lung cancer. It is important to acknowledge that great strides have been made in treatment options that extend the lifespan of those afflicted. However, five-year survival rates are very low. We propose that development of new therapeutics targeted to specific molecules important in the biology of non-small cell lung cancer is as important focal point of research at this time. As such, we've developed new methods to interrogate large sets of genetic data to identify new molecules that may be important in lung cancer biology and thus, potential new 'druggable' targets. In this proposal we will describe dissection of the function of one such molecule, Dusp4, which is a potential tumor suppressor gene in non-small cell lung cancer.