ALK Positive/LCRF Lung Cancer Research Award on Innovative Therapeutic Strategies to Treat ALK Positive Lung Cancers

LCRF is working in conjunction with ALK Positive to fund innovative projects related to ALK-driven lung cancers. The ALK Positive/LCRF Lung Cancer Research Award on Innovative Therapeutic Strategies to Treat ALK Positive Lung Cancers will provide $2,000,000 over a period of three years for projects focused on enhancing the understanding of ALK-driven lung cancers, including but not limited to these parameters:

• The proposal must be associated with a clinical trial.
• The trial should investigate novel new treatment approaches (i.e., next generation drugs or agents with novel mechanisms of action), and/or novel combinations. There is a particular interest in the development of effective immunotherapy, but therapy can include targeted agents, antibody-drug conjugates, radiopharmaceuticals, vaccines, cell therapies etc., if there is a reasonably strong rationale supporting the investigation.
• The proposal must have a program of basic and/or translational work associated with the clinical trial. Topics of interest can include but are not limited to mechanisms of resistance, studies on the immune landscape and tumor microenvironment, biology and mechanisms of tumor progression, identification of biomarkers to predict sensitivity to specific therapies, methods for optimizing treatment, etc.
• The proposal must include studies in patients with ALK-driven lung cancer. Other oncogene-driven lungs cancers can also be included depending on the focus of the clinical trial/study. For example, if the study is focused on immunotherapy, it could potentially include other patients with oncogene-driven lung cancer in addition to those that are ALK positive; however, there must be a significant portion of ALK patients included. If the clinical trial has an ALK-specific study arm then funding will be provided only for the ALK specific portion of the trial.

This award provides a maximum of $2,000,000 in funding over a period of three years. Investigators must be affiliated with a non-profit academic or research institution. An applicant must have a faculty appointment and may have any level of research experience. Trainees are not eligible to apply.

Deadline: July 27, 2023