Lung Cancer
New Approach Shows Promise as Lung Cancer Treatment
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A novel radiotherapy approach has shown promise as a treatment option, and may possibly increase the cure rate, for people with early stage lung cancer who are unable to tolerate surgery, according to findings from a five-year study led by SUNY Upstate Medical University.
SUNY Upstate was among 10 institutions nationwide participating in this first prospective radiotherapy study specific to high-risk patients with early stage lung cancer. The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting June 4 in Chicago.
Gene Variations Link Inflammation and Increased Lung Cancer Risk
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Variations in two genes related to inflammation may be a major risk factor for developing lung cancer, according to a team of scientists from the National Cancer Institute and the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The effect of these genes is especially strong among heavy smokers, suggesting that the inflammatory response is important in modulating the damage caused by tobacco smoke.
Their study, published in the July 1 issue of Cancer Research, a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, is the first to pinpoint the mechanism by which damage to the lung might trigger an overzealous inflammatory response by the immune system, leading to lung cancer.
Women survive lung cancer better than men
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Elderly women with lung cancer have significantly better survival rates than men, regardless of the type of treatment, according to the results of a new.
It has not been clear if women’s survival advantage “results from better response to treatment, different tumor biology, or a longer life expectancy,” Dr. Juan P. Wisnivesky and Dr. Ethan A. Halm, from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, write in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Assessment Model Based on Medical History Gauges Lung Cancer Risk
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Clinicians may be one step closer to having a critical tool in identifying which smokers are at higher risk for developing lung cancer, the deadliest of all cancers, thanks to an assessment model generated by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
The prediction tool detailed in the May 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is the first designed to assign a score assessing a person’s risk for the disease. It is also the first to use standard clinical and epidemiological data easily gathered by healthcare professionals, including: smoking habit; exposure to environmental tobacco smoke; family history of cancer; hay fever; emphysema; and exposure to dust, or asbestos.
Passive smoke in workplace increases lung cancer risk
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An analysis of nearly two dozen studies confirms the association between passive smoke in the workplace and an increased risk of lung cancer, according to a report in the American Journal of Public Health.
The research, led by University of Illinois at Chicago epidemiologist Leslie Stayner, is posted online and will appear in the March print issue of the journal.
Even with lung cancer, quitting cigarettes helps
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Once people have been diagnosed with lung cancer they might think it pointless to stop smoking, but in fact it’s not too late to benefit from quitting, a new study shows.
Researchers found that among more than 200 lung cancer patients at their center, those who quit smoking after the diagnosis became less severely impaired by the disease than those who kept up the habit.
Specifically, their “performance status”—a measure of patients’ ability to care for themselves and function in daily life—was generally higher, according to findings published in the medical journal Chest.
Exercise may reduce smokers’ lung cancer risk
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Women who smoke may be able to reduce their lung cancer risk with exercise, a new study shows. But the investigators caution that any relative benefit is dwarfed by the benefits gained from kicking the habit.
In the study, women who reported high levels of physical activity were 23 percent less likely to develop lung cancer than those who were the least active, report Dr. Kathryn H. Schmitz of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and colleagues. And among women who smoked, greater activity was tied to a 28 percent lower lung cancer risk, while women who were ex-smokers showed a 37 percent lower risk with more activity.
Nevertheless, smokers remained at much higher risk of lung cancer than those who had never smoked, or those who had quit, Schmitz and her team note. “Quitting smoking is the single most important action a smoker can take to reduce risk of lung cancer,” they note.
Successful Lung Cancer Surgery Not Enough to Break Nicotine Dependence in Many Smokers
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A new study has found that close to half of 154 smokers who had surgery to remove early stage lung cancer picked up a cigarette again within 12 months of their potentially curative operation, and more than one-third were smoking at the one year mark. Sixty percent of patients who started smoking again did so within two months of surgery.
The study, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and published in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, is the first to look at smoking relapse among people who were “forced” to quit due to impending surgery.
U.S. OKs use of Genentech’s Avastin in lung cancer
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U.S. regulators agreed to expand the use of Genentech Inc.‘s drug Avastin, now used against colon cancer, to include treatment of the most common type of lung cancer, the company said on Wednesday.
Avastin, the first drug designed to starve tumors of blood and nutrients, was approved as an initial treatment, in combination with chemotherapy, for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
The FDA nod, while expected, “is a billion-dollar-plus opportunity for Genentech,” said Mike King, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw.
New drug gives hope to lung cancer victims
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More people die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer and the prognosis for the disease is poor.
It kills more than 26,000 people in Britain each year and an estimated 163,510 deaths from lung cancer occurred in the United States during 2005.
An estimated 1 million people worldwide die from lung cancer annually.
Test predicts chemotherapy benefit for lung cancer
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The presence or absence of a protein in lung cancer cells can help doctors predict whether chemotherapy will help patients live longer after surgery, European researchers reported on Wednesday.
The study published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine could help doctors determine which patients can benefit from a type of chemotherapy before treatment starts.
“The results suggest that we may have a tool that can distinguish between patients who can benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy and those who cannot,” said Eddie Reed of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, in an editorial that accompanies the study.
Potential new diagnostic test and treatment for lung cancer
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University of York spinout company, Cizzle Biotechnology, has secured venture capital funding from the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund to continue its development of a potential new diagnostic test and treatment for lung cancer.
The finance will enable Cizzle to progress its research into a potential new method of diagnosing and treating lung cancer, based on the discovery of the role that the protein Ciz 1 appears to play in triggering DNA replication and cell growth. As cancer is associated with abnormal cell growth, the Cizzle team ultimately hope to confirm that blocking the actions of this protein will prevent tumours from occurring or slow down the growth of existing tumours.
Bortezomib extends lung cancer survival
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Adding the new molecularly targeted agent bortezomib to a standard chemotherapy regimen of gemcitabine and carboplatin prolongs survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, according to results from a phase II trial led by UC Davis Cancer Center.
In the study, patients taking bortezomib plus gemcitabine and carboplatin had a median survival of 11 months, reported Angela Davies, an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at UC Davis Cancer Center and lead author of the study. In comparison, 9 months is the longest median survival seen in past SWOG trials of platinum-based chemotherapy treatments for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
“These survival results are among the best ever reported in patients with NSCLC,” Davies said. “We look forward to further study of bortezomib in combination with chemotherapy as treatment for NSCLC in a larger, phase III trial.” In the study, 114 newly diagnosed stage IV and selected stage IIIB patients received gemcitabine and carboplatin in combination with bortezomib. The median overall survival was 11 months; one-year survival was 46 percent, with a median five-month progression-free survival. Other key findings:
Glaxo says lung cancer vaccine study encouraging
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An experimental GlaxoSmithKline Plc vaccine showed promise in a mid-stage trial for preventing a recurrence of lung cancer and will be tested in larger studies starting early in 2007, the company said on Sunday.
Dozens of drug makers are trying to develop vaccines for patients who already have developed cancer, rather than preventing illness as traditional vaccines do.
Sometimes called “therapeutic vaccines,” most still are in early stages of research and several have suffered setbacks.
Experimental treatment increases response rates in advanced lung cancer
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An early phase study pairing an experimental targeted therapy with a common anti-inflammatory produced promising results in patients with advanced lung cancer, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center reported.
Pairing the targeted therapy Tarceva with the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex increased response rates in lung cancer patients by about three-fold, said Dr. Karen Reckamp, an assistant professor of hematology/oncology and lead author of the study. The research appears in the June 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Association of Cancer Research.
Previous laboratory studies at UCLA showed that a cell signaling pathway known as COX-2 may be linked to resistance to drugs like Tarceva, which block tumor cell growth by targeting the protein EGFR, or epidermal growth factor receptor. Researchers theorized that giving Tarceva with Celebrex, a COX-2 inhibitor, would help battle resistance and prove to be an affective combination against lung cancer.
