Dr. Amy Cummings, assistant professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has received the 2024 Hamoui Foundation/LUNGevity Clinical Research Award. The two-year, $500,000 grant supports Cummings’ efforts to advance clinical research and improve outcomes for individuals diagnosed with RET-positive lung cancer.
RET-positive lung cancer is a rare subtype of non-small cell lung cancer that primarily affects younger people with little or no history of smoking. It is caused by mutations or rearrangements in a gene called RET, which normally regulates cell growth and communication. When this gene is altered, it can drive uncontrolled cell growth, leading to cancer.
Current treatments for RET-positive lung cancer include targeted therapies, which have proven effective in improving patient outcomes. However, many tumors eventually develop resistance to these therapies, leading to cancer recurrence.
Cummings and her team are developing new strategies to improve treatments for RET-positive lung cancer by addressing drug resistance. Their approach involves using bioengineered dendritic cells to train the patient’s immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells with mutated RET proteins. Once the immune system is primed, Cummings plans to build on this approach by incorporating an FDA-approved immunotherapy to further enhance the body’s natural ability to eliminate cancer cells.
“With this approach, we hope to not only overcome drug resistance but also offer new hope to patients facing this challenging cancer,” said Cummings, who is also the director of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
