Small cell lung cancers made from scratch

Abstract

In this issue of JEM, Chen et al. (https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20181155) describe a new approach for the transformation of human pluripotent embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into neuroendocrine (NE) tumors of the lung closely resembling human small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Another recent study uses a different method to transform fully differentiated normal human cells into high-grade NE tumors (Park et al. 2018. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat5749). These approaches and their models provide important new resources for developing diagnostic, preventative, and therapeutic approaches for high-grade NE tumors.