Evolutionary trajectories of small cell lung cancer under therapy. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38480884/)

These scientists wanted to understand why some types of lung cancer are very sensitive to chemotherapy but can come back quickly after treatment. They studied tumors from 65 patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) to see how the cancer cells changed during treatment. They looked at the genetic makeup of the tumors before and after chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

They found that before treatment, the cancer cells were all very similar in different parts of the tumor. But after chemotherapy, the cancer cells changed a lot and became more diverse. Some of the original cancer cells grew back after effective treatment, but with new genetic changes. They also discovered that certain genetic mutations were linked to how well the cancer responded to treatment.

In simple terms, the scientists looked at how the cancer cells changed and evolved during treatment to figure out why some treatments work better than others for small cell lung cancer.

George J., Maas L., Abedpour N., Cartolano M., Kaiser L., Fischer RN., Scheel AH., Weber JP., Hellmich M., Bosco G., Volz C., Mueller C., Dahmen I., John F., Alves CP., Werr L., Panse JP., Kirschner M., Engel-Riedel W., Jurgens J., Stoelben E., Brockmann M., Grau S., Sebastian M., Stratmann JA., Kern J., Hummel HD., Hegedus B., Schuler M., Plones T., Aigner C., Elter T., Toepelt K., Ko YD., Kurz S., Grohe C., Serke M., Hopker K., Hagmeyer L., Doerr F., Hekmath K., Strapatsas J., Kambartel KO., Chakupurakal G., Busch A., Bauernfeind FG., Griesinger F., Luers A., Dirks W., Wiewrodt R., Luecke A., Rodermann E., Diel A., Hagen V., Severin K., Ullrich RT., Reinhardt HC., Quaas A., Bogus M., Courts C., Nurnberg P., Becker K., Achter V., Buttner R., Wolf J., Peifer M., Thomas RK. Evolutionary trajectories of small cell lung cancer under therapy. Nature. 2024 Mar 13. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07177-7.