Lung cancer kills more than 100,000 people in the United States each year, and MIT researchers reported in August 2026 a mouse study suggesting that blocking an inflammatory enzyme, caspase-1, may reduce tumor development. In experiments with KPS mice engineered to model elevated cancer risk, animals given a caspase-1 inhibitor or an IL-1 beta antibody developed tumors that were much smaller and less numerous than those in untreated mice. Among mice given both drugs before tumors formed, nearly 20 percent never developed tumors, the researchers reported in Science Advances.

Caspase-1 activity was high in untreated mice, which all developed lung tumors, and was found primarily within tumors rather than nearby healthy tissue. The team also analyzed a small number of human lung fluid samples and found higher caspase-1 activity in patients with lung cancer than in healthy donors, despite a common smoking history. The candidate drug has previously been tested in clinical trials for rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions, but it has not been established as a lung cancer preventive in people.

The authors said they hoped to test it in a prevention trial, possibly using biomarkers from the Swanton lab at the Francis Crick Institute to identify likely responders to IL-1 beta antibody treatment. Sangeeta Bhatia is senior author and Cathy Wang the lead author.