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Lung Cancer Blog

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Blog (73)

Test Might Predict Risk of Lung Cancer's Return

Posted 17 days ago by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Jan. 26 – A new industry-funded study suggests that a molecular test can provide insight into whether patients are at high risk of a relapse after surgical treatment for a form of lung cancer. The test, which is currently available, could help doctors decide whether the patients should undergo chemotherapy to prevent the cancer from returning. There are caveats: The test is expensive, and researchers don't yet know whether patients determined to be at high risk will live longer if they undergo chemotherapy. Still, "this may be one of the very first examples of where we understood enough about the molecular biology of a cancer to truly personalize the treatment of patients and actually improve the cure rate for that cancer," said study co-author Dr. Michael Mann, an associate professor of surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. At issue is non-small-cell lung ... Read more

Related support groups: Lung Cancer, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Tests Might Someday Help Spot Early Lung Cancer

Posted 11 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 11 – Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in the world, and only about 15 percent of cases are diagnosed at an early stage, when it's most treatable. But two preliminary studies that are scheduled to be presented at a medical meeting this week suggest that scientists are moving closer to developing new screening tests that could potentially detect lung cancer in its earliest stages. In one report, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City evaluated tissue samples from healthy smokers and were able to identify precancerous changes in the cells lining the airways leading to the lungs. "We found that the earliest molecular changes related to lung cancer are present in the airway epithelium of healthy smokers who do not have any detectable microscopic abnormalities in the lung tissue," said study author Dr. Renat Shaykhiev, an assistant professor of ... Read more

Mixed News on Tough-to-Treat Lung Cancer

Posted 10 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Jan. 10 – Dutch researchers report disappointing results from an early clinical trial of the drug Nexavar (sorafenib) in fighting a tough-to-treat form of lung cancer. But, in better news, an experimental drug known as ganetespib showed promise in laboratory and animal experiments. The results of both studies were to be presented Tuesday at an American Association for Cancer Research/International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer meeting in San Diego. In recent years, researchers have made some headway in finding treatments to combat lung cancer, which often doesn't respond well to chemotherapy, explained Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. Those treatments include drugs such as crizotinib (Xalkori) and erlotinib (Tarceva), which are most effective in tumors that contain certain genetic mutations. However, those drugs tend ... Read more

Anti-Estrogen Treatment Shrank Lung Tumors in Mice

Posted 9 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Jan. 9 – Combination drug treatment that targets estrogen production significantly reduced the number of tobacco carcinogen-related lung tumors in mice, a new study shows. "Anti-estrogens have been shown to prevent breast cancer in some women," Jill Siegfried, a professor in the department of pharmacology and chemical biology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, said in an American Association for Cancer Research news release. "If anti-estrogens can prevent lung cancer as well, this would be a major advance, because these drugs are safe to give for long periods and there are no approved ways to prevent lung cancer," she added. Most lung cancers have a type of estrogen receptor that makes tumors grow when they're exposed to estrogen. In addition, aromatase, an enzyme in the lung, produces estrogen. Siegfried and her team found that blocking this estrogen receptor ... Read more

Researchers Look at Genomes of Nonsmokers With Lung Cancer

Posted 9 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Jan. 9 – Scientists who have started to identify genes and pathways associated with lung cancer in people who have never smoked say it's a first step in the potential development of new treatments. Never-smokers – people who've smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes over a lifetime – account for about 10 percent of lung cancer cases. But this group of lung cancer patients hasn't been studied as much as smokers who develop lung cancer, according to Timothy Whitsett, a senior postdoctoral fellow in the cancer and cell biology division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix. He and his colleagues conducted genetic analyses on three female patients with adenocarcinoma of the lung, a form of non-small cell lung cancer. One was a never-smoker with early-stage disease, one was a never-smoker with late-stage disease and one was a smoker with early-stage disease. "In ... Read more

Related support groups: Smoking, Lung Cancer, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Small Cell Lung Cancer

Targeted Drugs, Lung CT Screening Top Cancer Advances in 2011

Posted 6 Dec 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Dec. 6 – As the war against cancer continues, a group representing U.S. oncologists has picked its "Top Five" list of advances in cancer care for 2011. Leading the list are approvals for a bevy of new, targeted drugs for tough-to-treat malignancies, plus promising results suggesting CT chest scans may be an early-detection screen for lung cancer. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) this week issued its annual report on progress against cancer. The report was published online Dec. 5 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. "The big news has been targeted drug therapy," noted Dr. Nicholas Vogelzang, head of the section of genitourinary cancer at the Nevada Cancer Institute in Las Vegas and co-executive editor of the report. "We now have drugs that are very selective for some solid tumors. We now have [new] drugs affecting melanoma and lung cancer, which is pretty ... Read more

Lung Cancer's Hidden Victims: Those Who Never Smoked

Posted 2 Dec 2011 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, Dec. 2 – Opera legend Beverly Sills never smoked. Neither did actress and health advocate Dana Reeve, wife of the late actor Christopher Reeve. And yet in 2007 and 2006, respectively, both joined the ranks of about 32,000 Americans each year who never touch a cigarette but die of lung cancer anyway. In fact, experts say, one in every five cases of the leading cancer killer occurs in nonsmokers. The annual death toll among this group now approaches that of breast cancer (about 40,000 per year) and is roughly equal to that of prostate cancer (32,000). Many never-smoking women may also be unaware that they are more than twice as likely to die of lung cancer as they are of ovarian cancer (14,000 deaths per year). Numbers like those have experts calling for a shift in the public's thinking on lung cancer, away from its label of "the smoker's disease." "We say, 'If you have a lung, ... Read more

Related support groups: Lung Cancer, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Small Cell Lung Cancer

New Treatment May Boost Survival in Advanced Lung Cancer Cases

Posted 9 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 9 – For the first time, "epigenetic" therapy has shown promise in patients with solid tumors, in this case non-small cell lung cancers. Of 45 patients in a trial of this experimental treatment, two had a complete response to therapy, one had a partial response and one is still alive more than four years after starting therapy. "It's not a home run, but this trial has opened the door for further research into epigenetic therapy," said Dr. Stephen Baylin, co-author of the study appearing online Nov. 9 and in the December issue of Cancer Discovery. Other experts were both hopeful and cautious. "The exciting part of this study is that they're using therapies that have really never worked in solid tumors, and this is one of the first studies to show that these types of therapies may work in solid tumors, and more specifically in lung cancer," said Dr. Benjamin Levy, director ... Read more

Related support groups: Lung Cancer, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Too Much Drinking May Raise Lung Cancer Risk: Study

Posted 27 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Oct. 27 – While smoking has long been linked to cancer, its frequent companion, drinking, may be as well, a new study suggests. Three new studies presented at a medical meeting this week find a link between heavy boozing and a rise in risk for the number one cancer killer. On the other hand, studies also suggest that heavier people are less likely to develop lung cancer than smaller folk, and black tea might help ward of the disease, as well. The findings were to be presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, Oct. 22-26, in Honolulu. More Americans die from lung cancer than any other form, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available, more than 203,000 people in the United States were diagnosed with lung cancer, and nearly 159,000 died. In one study ... Read more

Related support groups: Lung Cancer, Acute Alcohol Intoxication

X-Ray Screening Doesn't Prevent Lung Cancer Deaths: Study

Posted 26 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 26 – Using chest X-rays to screen for lung cancer doesn't prevent deaths from the disease, a new study finds. "There really was no benefit of the screening," said study co-author Dr. Christine Berg, chief of the early detection research group at the division of cancer prevention at the U.S. National Cancer Institute. "We detected some of the cancers a little earlier than we would have, but not early enough or in large enough numbers to really have an impact on lung cancer mortality." Experts noted that the results of the large randomized clinical trial should put an end to any lingering questions about whether X-rays are useful in lung cancer screening. Recent research has indicated that CT scans are more effective at spotting malignancies earlier. The study involved more than 150,000 never smokers, former smokers and current smokers aged 55 to 74 taking part in the ... Read more

Related support groups: Lung Cancer, Diagnosis and Investigation

Globally, 2 Million Deaths a Year Linked to Smoky Stoves

Posted 13 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Oct. 13 – Smoky, inefficient indoor cooking and heating stoves that are widely used by people in developing nations contribute to 2 million deaths a year, according to health experts. Indoor air pollution from these stoves affects about 3 billion people, or nearly half the world's population, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists wrote in a commentary published in the current issue of the journal Science. The biomass (wood, crop residues, charcoal or dung) or coal fuel used in these stoves fills homes with dense smoke and blackens walls and ceilings, increasing the risk of health problems such as pneumonia, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the scientists explained. Women and children are at greatest risk for health damage caused by these stoves because they're at home most of the time while men typically leave during the day. In ... Read more

Related support groups: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Pneumonia, Lung Cancer

Cancer Patients Should Ask Doctors to Use Simple Terms

Posted 28 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 28 – Cancer patients are often faced with many difficult-to-understand treatment choices that can have serious side effects and even mean the difference between life and death. That's why it's crucial that patients insist doctors use plain language in explaining the options, advised Angela Fagerlin, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and a researcher at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. "People are making life and death decisions that may affect their survival and they need to know what they're getting themselves into. Cancer treatments and tests can be serious. Patients need to know what kind of side effects they might experience as a result of the treatment they undergo," Fagerlin said in a university news release. She and her colleagues outlined a number of tips to help patients get the information they need ... Read more

The War on Cancer Continues

Posted 20 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Sept. 20 – Forty years after President Nixon signed the National Cancer Act into law and pledged to put the country's resources to work to find better treatments for cancer, substantial victories have been scored against some, but not all, cancers. That's the core finding of a new report, the AACR Cancer Progress Report 2011, released Tuesday by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). The National Cancer Act promised more funding for cancer research and prevention. Since then, death rates for many cancers have dropped significantly. From 1990 to 2007, death rates for all cancers combined dropped 22 percent for men and 14 percent for women, resulting in nearly 900,000 fewer deaths during that time, according to the report. Today, more than 68 percent of adults live five years or more after being diagnosed, up from 50 percent in 1975. The five-year survival rate for ... Read more

Lung Cancer Rates Begin to Decline for U.S. Women

Posted 15 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Sept. 15 – The rate of new lung cancer cases among American women is finally beginning to decline, much as it has for men in for years, a new U.S. government report shows. New cases of lung malignancies fell by 2.2 percent per year on average for women between 2006 and 2008, after rising an average of 0.5 percent between 1999 and 2006, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Men's lung cancer incidence continued its long, slow decline, the agency added, but the pace of that decline has sped up in recent years. New cases fell by an average of 1.4 percent per year between 1999 and 2006 but that accelerated to a drop of nearly 3 percent per year by 2006-2008, the CDC said. Between 1999 and 2008, declines in new lung cancer cases were seen among men in 35 states, while the rate remained stable in nine states. For women, six states – California, Florida, ... Read more

Related support groups: Lung Cancer, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Small Cell Lung Cancer

FDA Approves Xalkori with Companion Diagnostic for a Type of Late-Stage Lung Cancer

Posted 26 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

August 26, 2011 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Xalkori (crizotinib) to treat certain patients with late-stage (locally advanced or metastatic), non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) who express the abnormal anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene. Xalkori is being approved with a companion diagnostic test that will help determine if a patient has the abnormal ALK gene, a first-of-a-kind genetic test called the Vysis ALK Break Apart FISH Probe Kit. It is the second such targeted therapy approved by the FDA this year. This ALK gene abnormality causes cancer development and growth. About 1 percent to 7 percent of those with NSCLC have the ALK gene abnormality. Patients with this form of lung cancer are typically non-smokers. Xalkori works by blocking certain proteins called kinases, including the protein produced by the abnormal ALK gene. Xalkori is a pill taken twice a ... Read more

Related support groups: Lung Cancer, Lung Cancer, Non-Small Cell

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