Lauren Averett Byers, M.D.
Department of Thoracic-Head & Neck Med Onc, Division of Cancer Medicine
About Dr. Byers
Dr. Byers completed her B.A. degree in Molecular Biology at Princeton University in 1998, her M.D. degree at Baylor College of Medicine in 2003, and M.S. degree in Patient-Based Research at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 2009. Following her Clinical Residency in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Byers joined MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2006 as a Clinical Fellow in Medical Oncology and later as an Advanced Scholar Fellow. During her fellowship, Dr. Byers focused on studying gene and protein profiles of tumor samples obtained from lung cancer patients. Her work revealed major differences in the cellular pathways in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) as compared to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), leading to the identification of the protein PARP1 as a novel therapeutic target for small cell lung cancer. In 2010, Dr. Byers was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology. She has an impressive list of funded grants and awards, including Women Leading the Way and NCI Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award (both in 2013), R. Lee Clark Fellow Award and President’s Recognition for Faculty Excellence (both in 2014) and ASCO Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Award (2015).
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Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Professor, Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Research Interests
Dr. Byers’ research goal is to identify changes in cancer cells at the molecular level that contribute to their growth and drug resistance and apply this knowledge to develop more effective, personalized therapy for patients. Her laboratory - together with the Thoracic Bioinformatics Team, which she co-leads - studies gene and protein profiles obtained from lung and head and neck cell lines, mouse models, and patient tumors. Dr. Byers’ laboratory research led to the discovery of several novel drug targets for lung and head and neck cancer and important ways in which cancer cells can become resistant to existing therapies, including immunotherapy. The results obtained by her team have led directly to clinical trials with new combinations of drugs that will impact patient care. Currently, Dr. Byers is examining the inhibitory effects of different drugs on protein Chk1 to treat small cell lung cancer.
Clinical Interests
Dr. Byers is a medical oncologist dedicated to understanding the causes of resistance to treatment in patients diagnosed with thoracic and head and neck cancers and identifying novel therapeutic targets for these diseases. She incorporates the analysis of gene and protein information of a patient when evaluating and determining the best treatment strategy for that patient. Previously, Dr. Byers demonstrated that the cellular membrane receptor Axl is a marker that can predict which patients will be resistant to treatment with EGFR inhibitors. This work led to her opening a clinical trial that uses new drug combinations targeting Axl in patients resistant to treatment with EGFR inhibitors. In addition, Dr. Byers is currently leading several clinical trials testing PARP inhibitors alone and in combination with chemotherapy for patients with recurrent small cell lung cancer.
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2009 | University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, USA, MS, Cancer Biology (Specialization in Patient-Based Research) |
| 2003 | Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA, MD, Medicine |
| 1998 | Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA, BA, Molecular Biology |
Postgraduate Training
| 2009-2010 | Advanced Scholars Program, Medical Oncology Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX |
| 2006-2009 | Clinical Fellowship, Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX |
| 2003-2006 | Clinical Residency, Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD |
Board Certifications
| 2010 | Medical Oncology, American Board of Internal Medicine |
| 2006 | Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Associate Professor, Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2017 - 2022
Assistant Professor, Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2010 - 2017
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Massarelli E, Lam VK, Parra ER, Rodriguez-Canales J, Behrens C, Diao L, Wang J, Blando J, Byers LA, Yanamandra N, Brett S, Morley P, Sharma P, Allison J, Wistuba II, Heymach JV. High OX-40 Expression in the Tumor Immune Infiltrate is a Favorable Prognostic Factor of Overall Survival in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. J Immunother Cancer 7(1):351, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31843013.
- Sen T, Tong P, Diao L, Li L, Fan Y, Hoff J, Heymach JV, Wang J, Byers LA. Targeting AXL and mTOR Pathway Overcomes Primary and Acquired Resistance to WEE1 Inhibition in Small-Cell Lung Cancer. Clin Cancer Res 23(20):6239-6253, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28698200.
- Sen T, Tong P, Stewart CA, Cristea S, Valliani A, Shames DS, Redwood AB, Fan YH, Li L, Glisson BS, Minna JD, Sage J, Gibbons DL, Piwnica-Worms H, Heymach JV, Wang J, Byers LA. CHK1 Inhibition in Small Cell Lung Cancer Produces Single-agent Activity in Biomarker-defined Disease Subsets and Combination Activity with Cisplatin or Olaparib. Cancer Res 77(14):3870-3884, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28490518.
- de Bono J, Ramanathan RK, Mina L, Chugh R, Glaspy J, Rafii S, Kaye S, Sachdev J, Heymach J, Smith DC, Henshaw JW, Herriott A, Patterson M, Curtin NJ, Byers LA, Wainberg ZA. Phase I, Dose-Escalation, 2-Part Trial of Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase Inhibitor Talazoparib in Patients with Advanced Germline BRCA1/2 Mutations and Selected Sporadic Cancers. Cancer Discov 7(6):620-629, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28242752.
- Stewart CA, Tong P, Cardnell RJ, Sen T, Li L, Gay CM, Masrorpour F, Fan Y, Bara RO, Feng Y, Ru Y, Fujimoto J, Kundu ST, Post LE, Yu K, Shen Y, Glisson BS, Wistuba I, Heymach JV, Gibbons DL, Wang J, Byers LA. Dynamic Variations in Epithelial-to-mesenchymal Transition (EMT), ATM, and SLFN11 Govern Response to PARP Inhibitors and Cisplatin in Small Cell Lung Cancer. Oncotarget 8(17):28575-28587, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28212573.
- Skoulidis F, Byers LA, Diao L, Papadimitrakopoulou VA, Tong P, Izzo J, Behrens C, Kadara H, Parra ER, Rodriguez-Canales J, Zhang J, Giri U, Gudikote J, Cortez MA, Yang C, Fan YH, Peyton M, Girard L, Coombes KR, Toniatti C, Heffernan TP, Choi M, Frampton GM, Miller V, Weinstein JN, Herbst RS, Wong KK, Zhang J, Sharma P, Mills GB, Hong WK, Minna JD, Allison JP, Futreal A, Wang J, Wistuba II, Heymach JV. Co-occurring Genomic Alterations Define Major Subsets of KRAS - Mutant Lung Adenocarcinoma with Distinct biology, Immune Profiles and Therapeutic Vulnerabilities. Cancer Discov 5(8):860-877, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26069186.
- Hoadley KA, Yau C, Wolf DM, Cherniack AD, Tamborero D, Ng S, Leiserson MD, Niu B, McLellan MD, Uzunangelov V, Zhang J, Kandoth C, Akbani R, Shen H, Omberg L, Chu A, Margolin AA, Van't Veer LJ, Lopez-Bigas N, Laird PW, Raphael BJ, Ding L, Robertson AG, Byers LA, Mills GB, Weinstein JN, Van Waes C, Chen Z, Collisson EA, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Benz CC, Perou CM, Stuart JM. Multi-platform Analysis of 12 cancer Types Reveals Molecular Classification within and Across Tissues-of-origin. Cell 158(4):929-44, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25109877.
- Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Comprehensive Molecular Profiling of Lung Adenocarcinoma. Nature 511(7511):543-50, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25079552.
- Cardnell RJ, Feng Y, Diao L, Fan YH, Masrorpour F, Wang J, Shen Y, Mills GB, Minna JD, Heymach JV, Byers LA. Proteomic Markers of DNA Repair and PI3K Pathway Activation Predict Response to the PARP Inhibitor BMN 673 in Small Cell Lung Cancer. Clin Cancer Res 19(22):6322-8, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24077350.
- Byers LA, Diao L, Wang J, Saintigny P, Girard L, Peyton M, Shen L, Fan Y, Giri U, Tumula PK, Nilsson MB, Gudikote J, Tran H, Cardnell RJ, Bearss DJ, Warner SL, Foulks JM, Kanner SB, Gandhi V, Krett N, Rosen ST, Kim ES, Herbst RS, Blumenschein GR, Lee JJ, Lippman SM, Ang KK, Mills GB, Hong WK, Weinstein JN, Wistuba II, Coombes KR, Minna JD, Heymach JV. An Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition (EMT) Gene Signature Predicts Resistance to EGFR and PI3K Inhibitors and Identifies Axl as a Therapeutic Target for Overcoming EGFR Inhibitor Resistance. Clin Cancer Res Comment in Clinical Cancer Research, 2013 19(1):279-290, 2013. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 23091115.
- Byers LA, Wang J, Nilsson MB, Fujimoto J, Saintigny P, Yordy J, Giri U, Peyton M, Fan YH, Diao L, Masrorpour F, Shen L, Liu W, Duchemann B, Tumula P, Bhardwaj V, Welsh J, Weber S, Glisson BS, Kalhor N, Wistuba II, Girard L, Lippman SM, Mills GB, Coombes KR, Weinstein JN, Minna JD, Heymach JV. Proteomic Profiling Identifies Dysregulated Pathways in Small Cell Lung Cancer and Novel Therapeutic Targets including PARP1. Cancer Discov (In the Spotlight, Cancer Discovery, 2012 2(9):798-811, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22961666.
- Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Comprehensive Genomic Characterization of Squamous Cell Lung Cancers. Nature 489(7417):519-25, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22960745.
- Rosenwald A, Wright G, Chan WC, Connors JM, Campo E, Fisher RI, Gascoyne RD, Muller-Hermelink HK, Smeland EB, Giltnane JM, Hurt EM, Zhao H, Averett L, Yang L, Wilson WH, Jaffe ES, Simon R, Klausner RD, Powell J, Duffey PL, Longo DL, Greiner TC, Weisenburger DD, Sanger WG, Dave BJ, Lynch JC, Vose J, Armitage JO, Montserrat E, López-Guillermo A, Grogan TM, Miller TP, LeBlanc M, Ott G, Kvaloy S, Delabie J, Holte H, Krajci P, Stokke T, Staudt LM. The Use of Molecular Profiling to Predict Survival after Chemotherapy for Diffuse Large-B-cell Lymphoma. N Engl J Med 346(25):1937-47, 2002. PMID: 12075054.
Invited Articles
- Sen T, Gay CM, Byers LA. Targeting DNA Damage Repair in Small Cell Lung Cancer and the Biomarker Landscape. Transl Lung Cancer Res 7(1):50-68, 2018.
Editorials
- Gay CM, Parseghian CM, Byers LA. This Is Our Cells Under Pressure: Decreased DNA Damage Repair in Response to Targeted Therapies Facilitates the Emergence of Drug-Resistant Clones. Cancer Cell 37(1):5-7, 2020. PMID: 31951562.
- Stewart CA, Byers LA. Altering the Course of Small Cell Lung Cancer: Targeting Cancer Stem Cells via LSD1 Inhibition. Cancer Cell 28(1):4-6, 2015. PMID: 26175409.
Books (edited and written)
- Glisson BS, Byers LA. Pathobiology and Staging of Small Cell Carcinoma of the Lung. Ed(s) Lilenbaum RC, Nicholson A, Jett JR. UpToDate, 2014.
Grant & Contract Support
| Title: | Novel Therapeutic Approaches for Enhancing Anti-tumor Immunity in SCLC |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) |
| Funding Source: | NIH-NCATS |
| Role: | Co-Investigator and Co-Core Lead - TL1 Program |
| Title: | Evaluation of Pre- and post-treatment Biopsy Tissue from SCLC Patients Treated with the Aurora Kinase B Inhibitor AZD2811-NP on Study NCT02579226 for Biomarker Expression |
| Funding Source: | AstraZeneca |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | SCLC Molecular Subtypes to Predict Targeted and Immune Therapy Response |
| Funding Source: | Lungevity Foundation |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Molecular and Immunological Heterogeneity of Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) and its Impact on Relapse and Therapeutic Response |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-Principal Investigator/Project Director |
| Title: | UT SPORE: Developing New Rationale, personalized Medicine for Lung cancer. Therapeutic Targeting of Replication Stress for Tumor Cell Killing and Anti-tumor Immunity in Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI SPORE |
| Role: | Applied/Basic/Clinical Co-Leader |
| Title: | Evaluation of Aurora Kinase B Inhibition in Preclinical Models of SCLC |
| Funding Source: | AstraZeneca |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Generation of Humanisable CTC-DX Models from Anti-PDL1 Progressing SCLC Patients to Evaluate Post-CASPIAN Candidate Combinations |
| Funding Source: | AstraZeneca |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | CPRIT Early Clinical Investigator Award-Carl Gay - Molecular Subtypes as Predictors for Precision Small Cell Lung Cancer Therapeutic Response |
| Funding Source: | Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) |
| Role: | Mentor |