Lung Cancer Research Foundation Announces Additional 2025 Scientific Research Grant Awards

Foundation funds five new research projects, bringing 2025 total to $5.2 million

NEW YORK, Jan. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lung Cancer Research Foundation® (LCRF) recently awarded five new research grants in the following areas: three LCRF Leading-Edge Research Awards, one LCRF Research Grant on Overcoming Resistance in Lung Cancer Award, and one LCRF Minority Career Development Award (CDA) for Lung Cancer. These awards are in addition to the fourteen research awards announced in early December 2025.

Also in 2025, LCRF awarded the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative (ALCSI) a grant to conduct its "Plus One" screening initiative and research study, funded a three-year project in collaboration with the Israeli Cancer Research Fund, and announced two research grants focused on innovative strategies to advance the understanding and management of lung cancers harboring HER2 mutations and/or other HER2 alterations in collaboration with Bayer Pharmaceuticals. Additionally, AstraZeneca partnered with LCRF to fund three awards focused on prevention and early detection.

"AstraZeneca shares LCRF's commitment to improving survival of people with a lung cancer diagnosis," remarked Nabil Chebab, US Medical Head, Lung Cancer, AstraZeneca. "We are delighted to collaborate on projects focused on prevention and early detection."

LCRF funds projects that demonstrate profound promise to make a sustained and lasting impact on lung cancer research and outcomes. The strength of LCRF's research program is underscored by the trust, generosity, and vision of its partners, fundraisers, and donors.

"LCRF is grateful to everyone who has made this grant cycle the largest in its history – 21 grant awards for more than $5 million," said Aubrey Rhodes, LCRF's Executive Director. "Ensuring that lung cancer research maintains momentum in an uncertain funding environment is of utmost importance. LCRF is committed to filling the funding gap. Working toward improving survival for people with lung cancer is our priority."

"It is gratifying to be able to fund even more innovative projects," said Kathryn O'Donnell, PhD, chair of LCRF's Scientific Advisory Board and Associate Professor, Molecular Biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center. "With this year's grants, LCRF's total active research portfolio supports more than $21 million in lung cancer research projects. More funding for research means greater opportunities to uncover advances that will have a positive impact for patients."

LCRF's Leading-Edge Research Grant in Lung Cancer funds innovative research focused on the diagnosis, treatment, and cure of lung cancer. The LCRF Research Grant on Overcoming Resistance in Lung Cancer is awarded to projects focused on combating therapeutic resistance.

LCRF's Minority Career Development Award for Lung Cancer is a two-year funding initiative aimed at advancing early-stage researchers from underfunded groups and enhancing their contribution to the lung cancer research workforce.

Additional LCRF 2025 Research Grant Awardees:

Leading Edge Grant Program:
Riyue Bao, PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Radiomics to Decipher Patient and Organ Heterogeneity in Response to Immunotherapies in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Radiomics is emerging as a non-invasive biomarker to predict the efficacy of anti-PD1/PDL1 therapy across cancers and patients with increased organ-level metastasis heterogeneity are more likely to progress. This study aims to develop machine-learning and artificial-intelligence models to distinguish disease control from progression with organ specificity in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. By linking these findings to tumor biology, the resulting data will not only shed light on the mechanisms underlying variations in response to immunotherapies but will also provide essential advancement in the non-invasive biomarker development investigating therapy resistance.

Joseph Chan, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Biomarkers of Response and Toxicity to Tarlatamab in Patients with Metastatic Small Cell Lung Cancer

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive and deadly form of lung cancer with limited treatment options and poor long-term survival. However, a newly approved drug represents a promising advance. Although it has shown encouraging early results, one side effect is cytokine release syndrome (CRS)—a potentially serious immune reaction that can cause fever, low blood pressure, and difficulty breathing. The goal of this study is to utilize new technologies in tandem with advanced computer modeling to improve how to predict which patients will benefit from this treatment and who is at higher risk for CRS. The study has two main aims: 1. Predicting who responds to the drug and 2. Identifying who is at risk for CRS in order to develop a new framework for personalizing treatment, making it more effective and safer, allowing patients to receive treatment more conveniently, avoid dangerous side effects, and ultimately, live longer.

Tom Cunningham, PhD, University of Cincinnati
Understanding the Dependency of RAS-driven Lung Adenocarcinomas on PRPS enzyme remodeling

Alterations in cellular metabolism are a well-established hallmark of lung cancers driven by the oncogene KRAS. Although much is known about how this occurs, we still lack clinically effective therapies targeting these processes. This study aims to leverage a novel metabolic vulnerability as a safe starting point in order to systematically dismantle the metabolic resiliency of KRAS-driven lung adenocarcinomas, will nominate a path for the development of effective, but less toxic, targeted therapies, and address key questions in basic lung cancer biology at a broad biochemical level. It will deliver new knowledge regarding the mechanisms oncogenic KRAS employs to deregulate gene expression and metabolism, and it will supply new diagnostic assays and therapeutic tools that can translate to the clinic to help patients with lung cancer.

Research Grant on Overcoming Resistance in Lung Cancer:
Chendi Li, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital
Enhancing anti-tumor chemokines in KRAS G12C inhibitor-resistant non-small cell lung cancer

Over the past few years, treatment options for patients with the KRAS-mutant non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have expanded to include immunotherapies and targeted KRAS inhibitors. These agents, while effective in some patients, do not induce deep or durable responses in the majority of patients. This has prompted clinical trials combining KRAS inhibitors with immunotherapies. Early results look promising, with response rates greater than either agent alone. However, 25–40% of patients still do not respond to the combination. Thus, there remains an urgent need to understand why these treatments fail in order to develop new strategies with enhanced efficacy to benefit a greater number of patients. This project seeks to understand mechanisms underlying the failure of some tumors to respond to combined KRAS and PD-L1/PD-1 inhibition. By identifying the transcriptional regulators of chemokines that recruit T cells and turn immune "cold" tumors "hot", this work will provide a foundation for future efforts to design therapeutic strategies to promote immune cell infiltration.

Minority Career Development Award (CDA):
Juliana Cazarin de Menezes, PhD, University of Rochester
The Role of BMAL1 and Circadian Disruption in Modulating Tumor Immunity and Immunotherapy Response in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Our body runs on a natural 24-hour cycle known as the circadian rhythm, which regulates many important functions, such as sleep, metabolism, and the immune system. Interestingly, recent research has shown that these internal clocks also affect how well cancer treatments work, especially a type of immunotherapy called immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), which help the immune system attack tumors. In people with lung cancer, ICI treatments given in the morning are up to four times more effective than those given later in the day. The main question is why timed immunotherapy might not work in some patients, and what factors might cause it to not work. In lung cancer, the circadian rhythm in the cancer cells is often altered or completely absent. Ultimately, this research could help improve outcomes for lung cancer patients by optimizing the timing of immunotherapy and identifying new markers to guide treatment. If successful, our findings may lead to more personalized and effective approaches to cancer care, taking into account not only the genetic makeup of the tumor but also the biological clock that governs the immune system.

For more information about LCRF and the Scientific Grant Program, visit LCRF.org/Research.

About the Lung Cancer Research Foundation 
The Lung Cancer Research Foundation® (LCRF) is the leading nonprofit organization focused on funding innovative, high-reward research with the potential to extend survival and improve quality of life for people with lung cancer. LCRF's mission is to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure of lung cancer. To date, LCRF has funded 450 research grants, totaling nearly $53 million, the highest amount provided by a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding lung cancer research. For more information about the LCRF grant program and funding opportunities, visit LCRF.org/research.

Contact:
Sheila Sullivan
Sr. Director, Marketing and Communications
[email protected]

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