The Skouta Lab received the American Cancer Society Scholar Grants of $792,000.00 fund to work on the Identification of Ferroptosis Inducers Toward Better Anticancer Therapies. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents more than 85% of lung cancer cases. The predicted 5-year survival rate of the NSCLC case is around 16 % due to a lack of understanding of the dynamic interactions between the tumor microenvironment and drug-resistant. Drug resistance in human cancers including NSCLC is the second leading cause of death in the US with 1.5 million affected individuals. Most current cancer treatments focus on a form of cell death known as apoptosis which is triggered by activating caspase enzymes in the cell. Unfortunately, with caspase-dependent apoptosis-based chemotherapy, patients are prone to developing resistance to the treatment. There is a clear need to develop better treatments for NSCLC. The Ferroptosis cell death approach expects to preferentially target cancer cells, sparing normal cells. Therefore, the quality of life for these patients and their caregivers would likely be improved.
Department of Biology