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Small Cell Lung Cancer Blog

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Lung Cancer Screening Might Pay Off, Analysis Shows

Posted 9 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, April 9 – Screening people at high risk for lung cancer could be at least as cost-effective as screening for breast, colorectal and cervical cancers, a new study suggests. A group of actuaries specializing in the health care industry estimated how much private insurance companies would pay and the survival benefits that would follow if they covered lung cancer screening. They based their study on using a scanning technology called low-dose spiral computed tomography (CT) on people between the ages of 50 and 64 who were at high risk for developing lung cancer due to their smoking history. The authors estimated that screening high-risk people would cost providers less than $19,000 for every year of life saved. The study was published in the April issue of Health Affairs. In comparison, the costs per life-year saved for breast, colorectal and cervical cancer screening – the three ... Read more

Immune-Based Drug Combo Might Extend Cancer Survival

Posted 2 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, April 2 – Cancer patients who receive a combination of low-dose interleukin-2 and retinoic acid after conventional therapy seem to live longer than those who don't get the combination. These new study findings, slated for presentation this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Chicago, were seen across individuals with many different forms of advanced malignancies, including breast, lung and colon cancers. Retinoic acid is derived from vitamin A. Interleukin-2, a compound that fortifies the immune system, is approved at high doses to treat "metastatic" melanoma and kidney cancer. Metastatic means that a cancer has spread. The study showed that "these biological compounds may work at low doses. Bigger doses are not always better," said lead author Dr. Francesco Recchia, director of the oncology department at Civilian Hospital in Avezzano, ... Read more

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

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

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

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

Who Should Get a CT Scan to Screen for Lung Cancer?

Posted 30 Jun 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, June 30 – Annual low-dose CT scans cut the death rate from lung cancer by 20 percent in heavy smokers and formerly heavy smokers, compared to those who get annual chest X-rays, according to the results of a major National Cancer Institute study released on Wednesday. Experts are calling the findings a major advance in efforts to combat lung cancer deaths. By catching the cancer early, the tumors can be removed surgically – hopefully before they've spread and become very difficult to cure. "This is a momentous time in the history of public health research," said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. "The NLST [National Lung Screening Trial] is the best-designed and best-performed lung cancer screening study in history." Yet the findings raise as many questions as they answer, said Dr. Harold Sox, a professor emeritus of medicine at Dartmouth ... Read more

Nearly 20% of Lung Cancer Patients Keep Smoking

Posted 10 Apr 2011 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, April 8 – Many patients diagnosed with lung cancer – as well as their family caregivers – continue to smoke even though doing so may jeopardize their recovery and long-term health outcome, says a study sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Researchers report that nearly one in five recently diagnosed lung cancer patients continues to light up, which can make them feel guilty or socially stigmatized. "The biggest obstacle is fatalism, the belief that it is too late to quit smoking so why bother," said Kathryn E. Weaver, study lead author and assistant professor of social sciences and health policy at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. "There are benefits to be gained by quitting that have important implications for survival, response to treatments, and quality of life," she said. The findings point to the need for family support, counseling ... Read more

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

Lung Cancer Evolves With Treatment, Study Finds

Posted 23 Mar 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, March 23 – A new study helps explain how some lung cancers become resistant to targeted drug therapy. Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center analyzed tumor samples from 37 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and identified two new genetic changes associated with resistance. They also confirmed resistance-related genetic changes identified in previous studies. The MGH team also discovered that the cellular nature of some tumors changes in response to treatment and that genetic mutations associated with drug resistance can disappear after treatment is halted. The findings highlight the importance of monitoring the molecular status of lung cancer tumors throughout the treatment process, the researchers said. "It is really remarkable how much we oncologists assume about a tumor based on a single biopsy ... Read more

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

Fewer Cancer Patients May Be Depressed Than Thought

Posted 20 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Jan. 20 – The rate of depression among cancer patients may be lower than previously believed, a new study indicates. An international team of researchers analyzed 94 studies involving more than 14,000 patients and found that about one-sixth of cancer patients suffer depression and about one-third have a more widely defined mood disorder. Only modest rates of depression and anxiety occurred in cancer patients in the first five years after diagnosis, which suggests that depression is not inevitable in these patients, the researchers said. Only when it was combined with other mood disorders was depression common, occurring in 30 percent of hospitalized cancer patients. The study is published online Jan. 19 in The Lancet Oncology. Rates of depression and anxiety were not significantly different between patients receiving palliative care (care designed to ease pain and increase ... Read more

1 in 5 Cancer Survivors Suffers Chronic Pain, Study Finds

Posted 20 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19 – More than 40 percent of cancer survivors experience pain, and the risk is highest among black and female patients, finds a new study. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System surveyed nearly 200 U.S. cancer survivors and found that 43 percent had experienced pain since their diagnosis, and 20 percent suffered chronic cancer-related pain at least two years later. Among white patients, the most significant source of pain was cancer surgery (53.8 percent), and among black patients the greatest source of pain was cancer treatment (46.2 percent), according to the report. In addition, the study found that compared to men, women had more pain, more pain flare-ups, more disability due to pain and were more depressed because of pain. The authors also noted that black patients were more likely to report greater severity of pain and more pain-related ... Read more

Deadliest Cancer Getting Smaller Chunk of Research Dollars

Posted 29 Dec 2010 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 29 – Consider this: Lung cancer is the most deadly form of cancer in the United States, killing about 157,300 people every year – more than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It is also the nation's second leading cause of death, second only to heart disease. And yet lung cancer attracts fewer federal research dollars per death than the other leading forms of cancer demise. Doctors have yet to find a reliable method for screening for lung cancer. And new treatments for lung cancer roll out at a snail's pace compared with therapies for other cancers. So why does the top cancer killer attract so little attention? Largely because people are perceived to have done this to themselves, garnering little public sympathy, said Kay Cofrancesco, director of advocacy relations for the Lung Cancer Alliance, a national ... Read more

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

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