The Manhasset-based non-profit Tom Zangas Memorial Lung Cancer Foundation will donate $50,000 toward research seeking treatments for patients with a genetic mutation by which their cancer cells build become resistant to certain drugs.
The research will be led by Dr. Andrea Ventura of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, whose team will work to develop a mouse model of the mutation in finding the source of how the cells immunize.
In his work, Ventura has found that patients with the mutation who undergo a “targeted” drug treatment enjoy a prolonged chance for survival, but tend to relapse with tumors for which the drugs are no longer effective.
It is the second time the foundation will have funded research since its inception in 2011 in wake of Manhasset residents Leonard and Penelope Zangas’ son Tom dying of lung cancer at age 40.
The foundation has raised $150,000 toward lung cancer research to date.
In the first study funded by the foundation, Yale University researchers worked to investigate therapies to block the process by which lung cancer cells spread to other organs.
A research team headed by Don Nguyen has discovered a pathway to inhibit lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer, from metastasizing.
The foundation will also host its annual 5K walk/run on Oct. 24 at North Hempstead Beach Park in Port Washington, in conjunction with the Archangel Michael Greek Orthodox Church.
