Lung Cancer – Cancer In Plain English – Cancer Information

A new way to detect lung cancer early

RemwesMedical — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 14:58:50 +0000

IDH1 – is this finally the blood test we have all been waiting for in order to find Lung Cancers early?
In a recent paper in the journal Clincal Cancer Research Jie He, MD, PhD of the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, China reported that a protein in the blood called, IDH1, may indeed be a great new blood test we can use to find lung cancers early. A “biomarker” is a substance – such as a protein – in the blood which may give us a clue that a disease is present in the body of the person who has this protein in their blood.

Dr. He and colleagues at the Laboratory of Thoracic Surgery at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences collected blood samples from 943 patients WITH lung cancer and 479 people WITHOUT lung cancer and compared the blood levels of IDH1 in both the patients with lung cancer and the persons without lung cancer.
Dr. He’s team’s findings were that the patients with a type of lung cancer known as Adenocarcinomas had almost 3x higher blood levels of IDH1 than people without lung cancer. They also discovered that patients with a type of lung cancer known as a Squamous Cell lung cancers had almost 2 1/2 times higher blood levels of IDH1 than people without lung cancer.

What this means is that we can conceive the thought that we could take people who have smoked cigarettes for a long time and, if we suspect that they may have lung cancer, draw their blood and study their blood to see if we find IDH1 in their blood. If we do, as we will see below, we can then re-draw their blood and run tests for other blood markers known as CEA, Cyfra21-1 and CA125 and if the person who has smoked cigarettes for many years and who we suspect may have lung cancer has high blood levels of ALL 4 of these biomarkers, we should then have a very high suspicion that this person may indeed have a lung cancer – even if we still can’t see one in his or her chest x ray.

The combination of measuring IDH1 along with other biomarkers in the blood may increase the ability of IDH1 to find lung cancers early: Dr. He and his team further noted that if they combined the detection of IDH1 with the detection of other biomarkers such as CEA, Cyfra21-1 and CA125, the ability to detect cancer versus a false positive increased. This means that the combination of all of these biomarker tests together was better than just measuring IDH1 by itself. On top of that, by combining the detection of IDH1 with these other, more familiar and known biomarkers, the team was able to get a sense of the TYPE of non-small cell lung cancer which was being detected such as Adenocarcinoma versus Squamous Cell carcinoma. This could truly be a wonderful new development if further testing proves that it is indeed as good as it seems.

We do not know if IDH1 – or its combination with other biomarkers such as CEA, Cyfra21-1 and CA125 is the final answer in allowing us to find lung cancers early; but the key is that we – the scientific community – are getting closer to finding a blood test with which we can find lung cancer early. As the world’s – and the US – population grows older, we can unfortunately expect more and more lung cancers to be found. We all know that lung cancer is the most prominent and principle cause of cancer deaths IN MEN AND WOMEN worldwide (and in the USA). We as well know that if we can find lung cancers early, we are able to remove them with surgery and are thus able to very possibly cure the person with the lung cancer. Finding lung cancer early, therefore, can only mean one thing – decreased deaths due to lung cancer.

Till next we speak again,
Mark Sperry for
www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

In the treatment of lung cancer does it help to receive chemotherapy after surgery? – YES!

RemwesMedical — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:22:21 +0000

A key factor when it comes to treating lung cancer is that if the lung cancer is found early in its growth, it may be possible to remove it surgically. To remove a lung cancer by surgery is the BEST CHANCE for cure that a patient with lung cancer can have. Unfortunately, there are many patients in whom the lung cancer returns just a few months after having removed it surgically. Also unfortunately, and more importantly, is the fact that when the lung cancer returns after having removed it surgically, it is then usually incurable. A key question is then: Is there something we can do in order to try to keep the lung cancer from coming back after having removed it surgically? The answer is yes!
In a recent set of articles and an editorial in the January 1, 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Doctors at the Cross Cancer Institute in Alberta, Canada have shown that it helps to receive chemotherapy after the surgery is performed to remove the lung cancer. They have shown that by giving chemotherapy following surgery, the chemotherapy helps to keep the cancer from returning. The act of giving chemotherapy following surgery is what is known as ADJUVANT chemotherapy.
These doctors have shown that if a lung cancer is found early (at least stages II and III) and is able to be removed surgically, if the person then receives chemotherapy with a chemotherapy medication known as Cisplatin accompanied by another chemotherapy medicine known as Vinorelbine (also called Navelbine), the person who receives chemotherapy this way after surgery, will have a significantly lower risk of having the cancer return compared to a person only had surgery to remove the cancer and did not receive any chemotherapy following the surgery.
These doctors at the Cross Cancer Institute in Canada and in an accompanying editorial written by Dr. Jean-Yves Douillard of the Centre Rene Gauducheau for Medical Oncology in St Herblain, France, have noted that even after following these patients for over 9 years after their surgery and/or chemotherapy, the patients who received surgery AND THEN chemotherapy lived longer and had less chances for their cancers to return compared with patients who received ONLY surgery and DID NOT receive chemotherapy after their surgery.
Thus, in conclusion, these studies show that if one has surgery to remove a lung cancer that has been found early, it is important and it makes perfect sense to ask one’s doctor about the possibility of receiving chemotherapy after the surgery in order to do all that is possible to keep the cancer from coming back. All of these concepts and more are covered in very easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on the www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com web site.

Does treatment of Lung Cancer with Tarceva help after treatment with Iressa stops working?

RemwesMedical — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:06:06 +0000

In the treatment of lung cancer, Tarceva (also known as Erlotinib) and Iressa (also known as Gefitinib) are relatively new medications which have been a wonderfully welcome new addition to the weapons available to us in the fight against this difficult disease. A key question has been: What do we do when one of these agents stops working? Well, a group in Shizuoka, Japan, in a recent article published June 21, 2009 in the medical journal entitled Lung Cancer, has asked and has tried to answer exactly such a question.
Doctors Kaira, Naito and colleagues from the Division of Thoracic Oncology of the Shizuoka Cancer Center in Shizuoka Japan studied the results of studies performed with 106 patients who were treated with Erlotinib (Tarceva) or Gefitinib (Iressa) between November 2004 and December of 2008. What Drs. Kaira and colleagues discovered is that for patients who were initially treated with Gefitinib (Iressa) and who showed a response to treatment with Gefitinib by stopping the growth of their tumors for approximately 6 months while they were receiving Gefitinib (Iressa) treatment, then showed a good response to treatment with Erlotinib (Tarceva), if they received treatment with Erlotinib (Tarceva) after the Gefitinib (Iressa) stopped working for them.
These are exciting results. What these results indicate is that for patients who have been receiving treatment for their lung cancers with Gefitinib (Iressa) and for whom Gefitinib stops working (and this is proven by seeing on x rays and on CAT Scans that the person’s cancer has started to grow even as the treatment with Gefitinib was ongoing), it makes sense to then switch to treatment with Erlotinib (Tarceva) at that point. These researchers have shown that treatment with Erlotinib (Tarceva) after 6 months of prior treatment with Gefitinib (Iressa) (especially if the Gefitinib was working for those previous 6 months) is beneficial. Moreover, it was shown that the side effects of these medications were very mild. The only real side effects were a mild skin rash and sometimes loose stools. Both of these side effects can be readily treated.
In summary, for patients who have been receiving therapy with Gefitinib (Iressa) and who have seen their cancers remain stable and not grow for a good 6 months while on treatment with Gefitinib (Iressa), if they then are told that their cancers have now started to grow even as the treatment with Gefitinib (Iressa) is ongoing, a reasonable treatment consideration at that point, in light of the results of the study by Drs. Kaira and colleagues mentioned above, is to then move on to treatment with Erlotinib (Tarceva).
All of the above concepts and principles are covered in very easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on the web site www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

Early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer

RemwesMedical — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:45:31 +0000

There is a new test being developed which promises to help doctors find lung cancers at an early point in the growth of the cancer. If this test indeed is as successful as it promises to be, this could be an enormous breakthrough in the care and treatment of lung cancer. The key with lung cancer is to be able to find it as early as possible in order to remove it surgically. For years, doctors have been trying to find ways to determine as early as possible if someone has lung cancer in order to be able to take that person to surgery as soon and as early as possible and thereby save his or her life.
Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine of the University of California at Los Angeles system have identified a group of 40 proteins that, if found in the blood of someone suspected of having lung cancer, may indeed be able to predict that he or she may or may not have lung cancer.
The researchers tested for this group of 40 proteins in patients who were found to have a “spot” on their x-ray and who were, as a result, in danger of possibly having lung cancer. Their results showed that of the patients who did indeed have lung cancer, the 40 protein group predicted that they would have lung cancer 88% of the time. Equally important, of the patients who did not have lung cancer, the group of 40 proteins predicted that they would not have lung cancer almost 80% of the time.
These are as yet very early findings and will need to be repeated and proven over and over again before this test can become available for all to use, but the key is that if indeed this test proves to be as useful as these early results suggest, this could be a great new weapon in the fight against lung cancer. If this test proves to be as effective as it now seems, we may soon be able to do a chest x ray on someone and if the chest x ray shows a “spot” in the lungs, we can then draw blood for these 40 proteins. If the test for these 40 proteins is positive, this would then give us a strong reason to try to remove the spot in the lung surgically. If the test for the 40 proteins is negative, this would give us a reason why to perhaps not do surgery at that time and just keep an eye on the spot in the lungs to see if it grows over time. These and many other concepts about lung cancer are covered in clear and easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on the web site www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

Vadimezan: Promising new drug for Lung Cancer

RemwesMedical — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:56:58 +0000

There is a new chemotherapy agent for the treatment of Lung Cancer which appears to be very promising. This new agent, which is known as either Vadimezan or by the experimental name of ASA404, is still in the experimental / testing stages of development; however the early results of studies with this new drug are very encouraging.
Lung cancer is a frequent form of cancer in the world. Thousands of people develop and, unfortunately, will pass away from Lung Cancer yearly. Although we have made many great steps forward in the fight against this difficult disease, new forms of therapy are needed in order to better prolong life and hopefully someday be able to rid patients of this cancer altogether.
A recent breakthrough in the treatment of cancer is a medication known as Bevacizumab (also known as Avastin, made by the pharmaceutical company Genentech) which is able to block the ability of tumors to make new blood vessels to feed themselves. A key factor in the development of cancers is that as they grow, they will outgrow their blood supply unless they are able to make more blood vessels which will then bring them increased nourishing blood supplies. Well, what Bevacizumab (or Avastin) does, is to block the cell signal that cancers send out to try to make more blood vessels. In so doing, the cancer will thus starve as it grows since it will thus outgrow its blood supply.
But what about cancers that have already made their extra blood supplies? How can we kill the extra blood supplies that have already been created by the cancer? Well this is what this new medicine, known as either Vadimezan or ASA404 precisely tries to do. Rather than stop the cancer from making new blood vessels in order to increase its blood supply, what Vademizan tries to do is to stop blood supplies that have already been established by the tumor in order to feed itself.
Early studies with this new medication have shown that patients treated with this new medication (Vadimezan) plus standard chemotherapy lived longer than those who were treated only with standard chemotherapy. Also, and importantly, it has been shown that this new medicine did not make people ill. In other words, the toxicity with this new agent was not severe. There were no reported episodes of bleeding or coughing up blood or other severe side effects observed with Vademizan in the early studies performed at the University of Auckland. This is an exciting and very promising new treatment for Lung Cancer which will hopefully soon be available. These concepts and many more are discussed in easy to understand language and with abundant detail in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on the web site www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

BSI-201 Experimental Breast Cancer Drug

RemwesMedical — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:36:07 +0000

Exciting news! There is a new drug for the treatment of Breast Cancer that is now being tested and is showing wonderfully promising results. In fact, the US Food and Drug administration has felt that the early results with the testing of this new medicine were so promising that it has granted this drug what is known as “FAST TRACK” approval. This means that it will move things along as quickly as possible towards fully approving this new and promising drug as a new treatment for Breast Cancer.
BSI-201 (as the drug is currently known, until the medication eventually receives a generic and a brand name for use in pharmacies across the country, is especially designed to be used in women who have what is known as “Triple Negative” breast cancers. These are breast cancers that are negative for the receptors known as the Estrogen receptors, the Progesterone receptors and the Her-2 receptors. Breast cancers that do not have any of these three receptors are felt to be more aggressive than ones with these receptors. The way that this new BSI-201 drug works against the breast cancer is by blocking an enzyme that the cancer cell uses to repair itself known as the PARP enzyme. Thus, when BSI-201 blocks that repair enzyme, then the cancer cannot readily repair itself and thus more readily dies.
An advantage that comes with having one or more of the receptors mentioned above is that it is possible to treat women with breast cancers who have positive receptors with anti-hormone therapies such as Tamoxien or a medication known as Herceptin which is for women who have breast cancers that are Her-2 positive tumors. These women with “Triple Negative” breast cancers, however, cannot benefit from treatment with either anti-hormonal therapy such as Tamoxifen or from anti Her-2 therapy known as Herceptin.
That is why it is so very exciting to have a new medication which can now treat these women with “Triple Negative” and thus otherwise rather difficult to treat forms of breast cancer.
An early study, carried out by the Drug company known as Sanofi-Aventis (which is the company that is making this new medication) has shown that women with advanced “Triple Negative” breast cancer treated with this new medication lived, on average, at least a year (12 months) from the time when this new medicine was started in their treatment compared with an average survival of only about 7 months for women who only received the usual standard chemotherapy medications. That means that women who received treatment with this new medicine lived at least 5 months longer than women who did not receive this new medication.
Of course, these are early results with this new medication and more study is needed; however thus far these early results are very encouraging.
These and other concepts are covered in this very easy to understand language in the Breast Cancer audio CD that is available on the web site called www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

Lung Cancer Diagnosis

RemwesMedical — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:56:31 +0000

The diagnosis of lung cancer is something that brings much anxiety and fear to the person as well as to the family members of the person. For years people have tried to see if perhaps a screening techniques could be found that would allow for the earlier diagnosis of lung cancer, but these efforts have failed to show a clear benefit. The desire, of course, is to try to find a lung cancer as early as possible in order to try as best to remove it surgically and thereby cure the person with the lung cancer.
Since screening techiques have not proven to be of benefit, we can then turn our attention to things that a person may exhibit which may give us a clue about the possibility that he or she may have lung cancer.
We need to keep in mind that the following list of possible findings or symptoms are much more important if the person who has these findings also has a history of having smoked cigarettes for many years. The list of findings are as follows:
1. PERSISTENT COUGH. A dry, hacking, persistent cough with little or no sputum production in a person who has smoked for many years is an important clue to the possibility that that person may have lung cancer.
2. UNEXPLAINED WEIGHT LOSS. If someone is losing weight without trying. If he or she feels that they just “can’t seem to keep the weight on”, this is an important clue for the possibility of lung cancer. Of course, this clue is made more significant if the person who has the unexplained weight loss has been a smoker for years.
3. COUGH WITH THE PRODUCTION OF BLOODY SPUTUM. If someone has a cough that produces blood sometimes (or most of the time), this is an important clue to the possibility that that person may have lung cancer. Of course there are other things that can produce a cough with bloody sputum, but we should as well keep in mind lung cancer in someone who develops this finding.
4. CHEST PAIN. Although we always think of heart problems when someone has chest pain, we need to keep in mind that it is possible to have chest pain from a lung cancer that is growing in the chest.
All of the concepts and clues that we have reviewed above and more are covered in calm, easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

Stage 4 Lung Cancer

RemwesMedical — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:23:21 +0000

Stage 4 Lung Cancer is lung cancer that has spread beyond the initial area in the lung where the cancer started to a distant area such as the opposite lung or the bones or the brain or the liver. Lung Cancer is divided into two different types of lung cancer.Those two types of lung cancer are Non Small Cell Lung Cancer and Small Cell Lung Cancer. NON Small Cell Lung Cancer is the one that is staged as Stage I, II, III or IV. The other form of lung cancer, the one known as SMALL Cell Lung Cancer is only staged only as either “Limited Stage” or “Advanced Stage”.
Thus, whenever someone states that a lung cancer is “Stage 4”, we know that they must be speaking about Non Small Cell Lung Cancer since Small Cell Lung Cancer is not staged with numbers. Small Cell Lung Cancer is staged only with those two categories mentioned earlier, “Limited” or “Advanced”.
The reason why Small Cell Lung Cancer is staged only in those two categories is because Small Cell Lung Cancer is felt to be so aggressive (it is more aggressive than Non Small Cell Lung Cancer) that surgery is not possible when it is first discovered. Therefore, it is not necessary to stage Small Cell Lung Cancers precisely with numbers. All that is needed in the staging of Small Cell Lung Cancer is to know if the disease is “Limited” or “Extensive” when it is found.
Non Small Cell Lung Cancer, on the other hand, does have the ability to be removed with surgery when it is first discovered, if it is found early enough. As such, the stages of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer are divided into Stage I, II, III or IV in an effort to know as carefully as possible if surgery is a possibility. Stage IV Non Small Cell Lung Cancer, however, is cancer that has already spread from the lungs where it started to a distant organ or a distant site far from the original location where the lung cancer started. As such, surgery is not possible for Stage IV Lung Cancer. The treatments that are possible for Stage IV Lung Cancer are chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
All of these concepts and many more are covered carefully and in very easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com.

Lung Cancer Treatments

RemwesMedical — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:05:26 +0000

The treatments that are available for lung cancer are as follows:
1. SURGERY. When someone is found with lung cancer, the first and most important determination is to decide if the cancer can be removed surgically. The decision whether to allow surgery or not is based on the size of the tumor when it is found (what is known as the stage of the lung cancer) as well as the condition of the person with the cancer. The tumor may be small enough to remove surgically, but the person may be too sick to tolerate the surgery because of other conditions such as heart disease or poorly controlled diabetes.
2. CHEMOTHERAPY. Once the decision has been made that surgery is not possible, the next decision is whether to give chemotherapy as treatment for the lung cancer. Traditionally, chemotherapy has always been a form of treatment for lung cancer whereby a liquid is given through a tube that is attached to a needle that is inserted into a vein. This treatment is given either in the doctor’s office or in the hospital. Chemotherapy has various side effects including the possibility of nausea and/or vomiting, hair loss, fatigue, lack of appetite, a lowering of the body’s blood cells and an increased risk for infections.
3. NEWER FORMS OF CHEMOTHERAPY. There are newer forms of chemotherapy that are being developed and used these days which are very different from the past traditional chemotherapy. A welcome change with regards to these new chemotherapy treatments is that these treatments are now often available as a pill. This means that with these newer treatments the person with lung cancer does not have to come to the doctor’s office or the hospital regularly any more for regular chemotherapy treatments. They can now just take a pill at home and only come to the doctor’s office for scheduled check ups.
4. RADIATION THERAPY. Occasionally, there is a need for a form of treatment for lung cancer known as radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is different from chemotherapy in that radiation therapy is basically a light that is delivered to the area with the cancer. Chemotherapy is either a liquid that is given or a pill that is taken and the medicine then circulates all through the body. Radiation therapy, on the other hand, is a light that one “shines” only on the area with the problem. Therefore, if the cancer spreads to a bone and that bone has pain because the cancer has moved there, radiation therapy can be given to that bone in order to decrease the pain. Radiation therapy can also be given to stop the person from coughing up blood as a result of the growth of the cancer.
All of the concepts and information given above, and many more, are covered thoroughly and in very easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com.

Lung Cancer Chemotherapy

RemwesMedical — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:53:53 +0000

The chemotherapy that is used to treat lung cancer is constantly evolving. As new treatments are discoverd and more effective ways of fighting lung cancer are found, these new treatments are incorporated into the fight against lung cancer.

TRADITIONAL CHEMOTHERAPY: Traditional chemotherapy has been used to treat lung cancer for decades. This is typically a liquid that is dripped slowly into tubing that is connected to a needle that goes to the vein of the person with lung cancer. Traditional chemotherapy is fairly aggressive and unfortunately hurts both the normal blood tissue cells as well as the cancer cells. The goals of traditional chemotherapy, however, is to kill more of the cancer cells than the normal body cells with this therapy.

CHEMOTHERAPY AGENTS: Studies have shown that it is best to use two different chemotherapy drugs at the same time to treat lung cancer. These two different chemotherapy drugs are usually given together on various schedules. Studies were done to see if it might perhaps be possible to get better results against the lung cancer if three chemotherapy drugs were used together instead of two and these studies showed that it was no better to use three drugs instead of two, but it made the person much more sick with side effects. Therefore, the standard therapy at this time is that when traditional chemotherapy is used to treat lung cancer, two chemotherapy drugs are used at the same time. This has been shown to be better than just using one chemotherapy drug or three chemotherapy drugs at the same time.

NEWER CHEMOTHERAPY: The newer chemotherapy agents that are being developed and used these days for the treatment of lung cancer are drugs that do not kill both good and bad cells as the traditional chemotherapy does. These newer drugs do not kill cells at all. What they do is that they interfere with the actual mechanisms that the cancer cell uses to make the cancer, keep it alive and to allow itself to grow. This is a new and promising way to treat lung cancer since it provides therapy that can be taken as a pill and does not require a needle dripping fluid into a vein. There are two main newer chemotherapy agents which work this way, which are being used more and more these days. Those two agents are a drug called Erlotinib (also called Tarceva) and Nilotinib (also called Iressa). These drugs attack the actual signal that the cancer cell uses to tell the cancer to grow and make more cancer and these drugs do their best to shut off those signals. These newer drugs are fascinating new treatment possibilities in the fight against lung cancer.

All of these principles and concepts are discussed in easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com