The UCSF Thoracic Oncology Lab is engaged in translational research focused on discovering diagnostic biomarker assays and targeted therapies to treat lung cancer, mesothelioma, esophageal cancer and other thoracic malignancies. The long-term goals are to improve survival and, one day, cure patients suffering from these diseases.
Current projects include: banking high quality fresh frozen tumor and matched normal tissues from locally resected cases; investigating key biological signaling pathways implicated in thoracic cancers, including the Wnt, Hedgehog, and K-ras pathways; studying the role of inflammation in lung and esophageal cancers (with Dr. Lisa Coussens, PhD); broaching individualized lung cancer diagnosis with the lab of Dr. Allan Balmain, PhD, FRSE, in a joint project entitled "Lung Cancer System Genetics;" isolating cancer stem cells from lung cancers and mesothelioma; and performing clinical outcomes research.
The Thoracic Oncology Lab also participates in other collaborative research projects at UCSF including "Mesothelioma and Tumor Microenvironment" with Dr. V. Courtney Broaddus, MD; "Genomic Targets in Melanoma" with Dr. Mohammed Kashani-Sabet, MD; "the Role of Novel Sulfatases in Lung Cancer" with Dr. Steven D. Rosen, PhD; and "Extracellular-Matrix Remodeling of the Lung in COPD" with Dr. Stephen Nishimura, MD.