Lung cancer is a deadly disease. This lethality is due, at least in part, to how often and how extensively these cells can spread throughout the body. My laboratory is working to understand what causes these cancer cells to spread and how they survive this process. By doing so, we hope to identify new ways to treat lung cancer.
We are interested in the nutrients cancer cells use to support growth and how these nutrients might help cancer cells spread. We are particularly interested in fats, or fatty acids. These complex nutrients play many different roles in cells, including helping to maintain cell structure, storing energy, and even acting as a method of communication with other cells. When we measured fatty acids in lung cancer, we saw that several fats and fatty acid pathways were different in tumors that spread throughout the body, compared to tumors that did not. In this study, we investigate how fatty acid metabolism supports aggressive cancer cells, and we will test whether blocking these fatty acid pathways can prevent lung cancer cells from spreading.
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