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When lung cancer and breast cancer relapse, they often metastasize in the brain. The tumors that arise in the brain develop novel characteristics, differences that oft en confer resistance to existing drug therapies and create opportunities for new detection and treatment approaches for Yale Cancer Center researchers.

A conversation with Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital scientist Katerina Politi working remotely during COVID-19.

The development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has revolutionized the treatment of EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in recent years, but new strategies are needed to overcome resistance mechanisms that promote disease recurrence, Katerina A. Politi, PhD, said during a 2019 ASCO session featuring emerging research.

NEW YORK, May 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) today announced that Dr. Katerina Politi has been named the chair of its Scientific Advisory Board. Politi, an Associate Professor of Pathology and Internal Medicine (in the Section of Medical Oncology) at Yale School of Medicine, will be taking over the role from Dr. James B. Dougherty, who has held the chair position for 14 years.

Katerina Politi, PhD and Don Nguyen, PhD, members of the Signal Transduction Research Program at Yale Cancer Center (YCC), have received a 5-year, nearly $4 million National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to support Lung Cancer research.

During this year’s Annual YCC Conclave, The Class of '61 Research Prize was awarded to Katerina Politi, PhD, with introductory remarks by Dr. Roy S. Herbst.

Ginny Grunley became a patient of Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, after being diagnosed with a form of lung cancer associated with the EGFR gene mutation, also known as non-smoker’s lung cancer. Grunley and her husband Ken have given a million-dollar gift to support Herbst’s research.

A new Yale study has shown how lung cancer may develop resistance to therapy in some patients. Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that lung cancer cells may become resistant to a type of cancer therapy by disrupting patients’ normal immune response. The finding provides researchers with a molecular basis for understanding drug resistance in lung cancer. The study was published in the Cancer Discovery journal on Oct. 12. “Understanding the biology of acquired resistance to these therapies is really important because this knowledge will allow us to figure out what we need to do to treat resistant tumors,” said Katerina Politi, a professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology and the study’s senior author. “Knowledge of how tumors escape can also help us develop ideas for therapeutic approaches to prevent drug resistance.”