Lung cancer claims more lives each year than any other type of cancer worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.8 million people died of lung cancer in 2020. Current treatments rely on one of two avenues: generalized chemotherapy that inflicts harsh side effects on cancer patients, or targeting of tumors with very specific mutations that may not apply to many patients—both of which make fighting the disease challenging.

Researchers at SRI International have designed and optimized a new peptide—a molecule that contains two or more amino acids—to act as a delivery vehicle for drugs to treat non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for the majority of lung cancer cases. This peptide, highlighted in a recent study published in Nature Communications Biology, can carry large anti-cancer drugs and successfully target cancerous cells, binding to them and triggering a process to draw the peptide and its cargo inside.

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