The presence of a known driver of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)-fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR)-has been found to also be present in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to research reported at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting (Abstract 558).

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This implies, a news release notes, that promising treatments in development for NSCLC may also be applicable to patients with SCLC, the rarer and more aggressive form of lung cancer.

"There is an unmet need in small-cell lung cancer. There have been no significant new therapies developed in 20 years," said the senior author of the poster study, Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, Associate Director for International Programs at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and CEO of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

One promising new strategy in the treatment of NSCLC is inhibition of FGFR, which helps to signal uncontrolled growth in about 21 percent of those cancers. The new research showed positivity for FGFR1 amplification, mRNA, and/or protein expression in about 23 percent of patient samples (17 of 75) of SCLC tumors.

SCLC accounts for 10 to 15 percent of all lung cancers, and five-year survival rates are less than half those for patients with NSCLC. Because small-cell lung cancer shows symptoms much later than non-small cell lung cancer, it is usually diagnosed much later in the course of the disease-typically after it has already metastasized.

The study identifies a subset of SCLC patients with potentially overactivated FGFR1 pathways as shown by gene amplification, increased FGFR1 messenger-RNA (mRNA) levels, and high protein expression.

"This clearly demonstrates that FGFR1 is important in a subgroup of small-cell lung cancers," Hirsch said. "I would say this will lead to a clinical trial of drugs targeting FGFR in small-cell lung cancer. The progress of existing drugs targeting FGFR1 means that we could be much closer to offering treatment options to people with small-cell lung cancer than if we had been forced to start with a new compound."

His coauthors were Hui Yu, Andrzej Badzio, Theresa Boyle, Xian Lu, Christopher J. Rivard, Ashley Kowalewski, Brad Rikke, Kim Ellison, Leslie Rozeboom, and Biftu Hassan-all from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; and second author Andrzej Badzio, from Medical University of Gdansk in Poland.

FRED R. HIRSCH, MD, PHD. FRED R. HIRSCH, MD, PHD: "This clearly demonstrates that FGFR1 is important in a subgroup of small cell lung cancers. I would say this will lead to a clinical trial of drugs targeting FGFR in small-cell lung cancer."