Our laboratory is focused on understanding the mechanisms of cancer progression and metastasis. Over 90% of cancer-related deaths in solid tumors are due to metastasis, which is the dissemination and growth of cancer cells in vital organs such as the lung, liver, bone, and brain. We investigate two main areas of metastasis biology- therapy resistance of metastatic tumors, and systemic effects of the metastatic disease such as cachexia, both of which contribute to the lethality observed in metastatic cancers.

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(a) Therapy-resistance of metastatic tumors: Metastatic tumors are often therapy-resistant. Our laboratory explores how metastatic tumors become therapy-resistant and how we can better target metastatic tumors.

 

(b) Systemic effects of metastatic cancers- cachexia: During cancer progression, tumors systemically reprogram host physiology, metabolism, and immune responses. These systemic effects lead to a debilitating muscle-wasting syndrome, known as cachexia, which is observed in over 80% of metastatic cancers. Cachexia is associated with reduced tolerance to anti-neoplastic therapy,  poor prognosis, and accelerated death in metastatic cancer patients. We seek to understand the mechanisms that drive cachexia, and to develop strategies that can prevent or treat cachexia in metastatic cancer patients.

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Highlights of our work are shown below.