The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) and Pfizer Global Medical Grants announced a collaboration to fund over $1 million in research grants through a Competitive Research Grant Program. The research grant opportunity is focused on understanding ways to improve clinical practices for side effect management for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients receiving targeted therapies. This is the first collaboration of its kind in lung cancer and could have an impact on patient care.
Lung cancer is currently the number one cause of cancer death both in the U.S. and globally among both men and women. An estimated 625 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. every day. As research funding grows, new treatments become available and survival rates improve. For some lung cancer patients, one promising treatment option is the rapidly growing field of targeted therapies, which employs drugs that interfere with specific molecules involved in the growth, progression, and spread of cancer. Currently, targeted therapies are used to treat NSCLC that has metastasized. Among patients with adenocarcinoma, the most common form of NSCLC, up to 30% have a known oncogenic driver mutation that could ultimately be treated with targeted therapies.
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Oncology drugs, including targeted therapies, cause toxicity and there is a significant clinical need for effective identification, diagnosis and treatment of therapy side effects. This grant is aimed at improving the management of these side effects in patients receiving targeted therapies and will provide support for health services research in this area, with the hope that it will improve duration of treatment and therefore clinical outcomes as well as patient satisfaction with therapy. Through this collaboration, LCRF and Pfizer ultimately seek to increase lung cancer survival and improve outcomes for lung cancer patients.
"LCRF is honored to continue its nearly two-decade legacy of identifying and supporting over 300 impactful lung cancer research projects by partnering with Pfizer who continues to be a generous supporter of our mission," said James B. Dougherty, MD, Chair, LCRF Scientific Advisory Board. "The specific focus of this grant program is to study targeted lung cancer therapy side effects, which is very timely and important to the many patients and their caregivers receiving such drugs."
Through this funding mechanism, LCRF and Pfizer will support up to three innovative health services research projects focused on the improved management of treatment toxicities from targeted therapies in lung cancer patients. The three grants of up to $350,000 will support a research period of two years to investigators at US-based institutions. LCRF will announce the awardees in November 2019 at its annual Lung Cancer Awareness Luncheon.
"Pfizer is proud to partner with LCRF to further research in non-small cell lung cancer," said Julia Perkins-Smith, Vice President, North America Medical, Pfizer Oncology. "Our hope is that these grants will fund research that may improve the experience of those living with lung cancer who are receiving targeted therapies, and provide new guidance to the doctors who are treating them."