[Press Release] A New Therapeutic Hope for Small Cell Lung Cancer, One of the Most Refractory Cancers—IGF1R Inhibitors May Be Effective for the Non-Neuroendocrine Subtype of Small Cell Lung Cancer —
A research team led by Associate Professor Hiroyuki Yasuda, graduate student Takahiro Fukushima, and Professor Toshiro Sato established organoids from tumors of 33 patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The team found that a subset of SCLC—specifically the non-neuroendocrine subtype—shows strong growth dependence on a growth factor called IGF-1. They further identified that inhibitors targeting IGF1R, the receptor for IGF-1, may represent a promising new therapeutic option. The detailed findings of this study were published online in Nature Cancer on April 30, 2025 (UK time).