[Reading Science] Failed Anticancer Drug Effective for Korean Women Non-Smoking Lung Cancer

KIST Discovers Effectiveness of Failed Anticancer Drugs Through Multi-Omics Analysis

A treatment for lung cancer in Korean female non-smokers, which is on the rise, has been discovered by domestic researchers.

＜Overview of Genetic Proteome Analysis Study in Non-Smoking Lung Cancer＞
(Left) Gender distribution of Korean non-smoking lung cancer patients analyzed in this study. Majority were female.
(Center) Gene mutation screening results of non-smoking lung cancer patients showed unidentified mutations in 15 percent of patient lung tissues. Genetic proteome analysis was ultimately performed on 101 tissue samples.
(Right) Molecular characteristics of Korean non-smoking lung cancer were analyzed using multi-omics analysis methods.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Oh Sang-rok) announced on the 12th that Dr. Lee Cheol-joo's team at the Center for Chemical Life Science Convergence Research, in collaboration with Dr. Kim Sun-young's team at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology and Dr. Han Ji-yeon's team at the National Cancer Center, identified that lung cancer in Korean female non-smokers is caused by the overexpression of a specific estrogen signaling pathway, and proposed the anticancer drug saracatinib as a targeted therapeutic agent.

Chul-Joo Lee, Senior Researcher at KIST

Jusin Young, Postdoctoral Researcher at KIST

Saracatinib, developed by the global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, was initially developed as a cancer treatment but was not labeled as an anticancer drug due to insufficient efficacy. Subsequently, research has been ongoing to investigate its therapeutic effects on Alzheimer's disease and pulmonary fibrosis. However, KIST researchers have confirmed evidence that this drug can be utilized for treating lung cancer in Korean female non-smokers.

Although further animal experiments and clinical trials are necessary, the research team considers it highly significant that a drug currently approved and in use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been found to be effective in treating lung cancer in Korean female non-smokers.

Until now, specific therapeutic targets have been identified for 70% of non-smoking lung cancer patients, but for the remaining 30%, no known treatment targets existed, making it difficult to use targeted therapies.

For this study, the research team analyzed genetic data from biopsy samples of 1,597 non-smoking lung cancer patients who visited the National Cancer Center over the past decade and secured lung cancer tissues from 101 patients without identifiable therapeutic targets. They conducted detailed analyses to discover treatment targets reflecting the characteristics of Koreans.

This study utilized a technology called multi-omics. Multi-omics integrates various molecular information such as genomics and proteomics to provide comprehensive data. It is a highly challenging analytical method that requires analyzing minute amounts of proteins at the level of tens of micrograms (μg, one-millionth of a gram) with minimal loss.

The research team is developing molecular diagnostic technology capable of differential diagnosis for non-smoking lung cancer patients who show specific expression in the estrogen signaling pathway, alongside follow-up studies. Additionally, they plan to jointly conduct preclinical trials with the National Cancer Center to analyze the therapeutic effects of saracatinib on non-smoking lung cancer animal models.

Dr. Lee Cheol-joo of KIST stated, “This is a successful case of discovering new therapeutic targets for intractable cancers through multi-omics analysis,” adding, “It is highly meaningful as an achievement realized through joint research between hospitals and research institutes based purely on domestic research, and based on this experience, we will lead the expansion of multi-omics research on human diseases.”

This study was published online in the latest issue of the international academic journal 'Cancer Research' (IF 11.2, JCR field 10.6%).