LungBlog

Duke University Medical Center scientists have developed the first-ever genomic test to predict which patients with early-stage lung cancer will need chemotherapy to live and which patients can avoid the toxic regimen of drugs. The new test, called the Lung Metagene Predictor, scans thousands of genes to identify patterns of gene activity in individual tumors that indicate a patient is likely to suffer a recurrence of disease.

THE BONNIE J. ADDARIO A BREATH AWAY FROM THE CURE LUNG CANCER FOUNDATION, headquartered in San Francisco and San Carlos, California hosted its 1st Annual LUNG CANCER: DRIVE IT OFF THE EARTH GOLF TOURNAMENT at Green Hills Country Club in Millbrae, California on August 7, 2006 with a shotgun start at high noon. It was truly a hole in one in the fight against LUNG CANCER, raising over $125,000.

Executive Board Member Tony Addario had an idea on May 12, 2006 to have a golf tournament fundraiser. He was hoping to raise $40K. In less than 3 short months he managed to register 100 golfers from the San Francisco 49ers Keena Turner and Eric Wright to friends and golfers from Boston to the Bay Area. CBS Outdoor, sponsor of the Foundation’s LUNG CANCER MATTERS TOO! campaign that just launched on San Francisco Bay Area buses, joined in along with tournament winners(1st place) Rusty Walther, Dan Burton, Ed Deenihan, John Hamilton (2nd place) Jared Beltramo, John Russo, DDS, John Nelligan, MD, Anthony Beltramo, and (3rd Place) Ignacio Del Rio, Eddie Hernandez, Scott Ask, and Dave Delia. The winners graciously set the stage for the rest of the evening’s fundraising success by returning their cash winnings to help fight lung cancer.  Next came the live auction with amazing prizes from an ABC TV Behind-The Scenes Tour donated by Cheryl Jennings and Rick Pettibone,  San Jose Sharks packages, otherwise inaccessible wine tastings at the Napa Valley Reserve with a 2-Night Stay at Meadowood Resort to a totally unique Club Sportiva Driving Experience with golf at Clint Eastwood’s Tehama Golf Club in Carmel commanding nearly $40,000

A Fund the Need announcement raised nearly $15,000 following founder Bonnie Addario’s heart-wrenching speech describing the serendipity of her 2-1/2 year survival, the urgency of a nationwide screening program to combat lung cancer, the world’s ignored yet most lethal cancer and the #1 cancer killer in the United States, and a plea to stop blaming victims of lung cancer for smoking. “I live every single minute of every single day thinking about how we can catch this disease early, so nobody, not anybody in my family, or any of my friends or anyone I haven’t yet met, or anyone who smoked or never smoked has to go through the pain and suffering that I did and may still.  I will always have cancer.  But I am one of the lucky few, and when I say few, I mean a handful of us, who have managed by some miracle, to beat the odds, for now, Addario said. There’s a myth about lung cancer that needs to be dispelled. It’s not just a smoker’s disease. 60% of all Californian’s diagnosed last year were nonsmokers. Dana Reeve never smoked. Peter Jennings did. Do we ask people with heart disease if they ate the wrong food? Let’s concentrate on saving lives because we can if we catch lung cancer early enough. 19 people are going to die in the next hour. 450 people die of lung cancer every day. That would mean everybody in this room and then some. We need to do something right now because if we don’t 650,000 people are going to die by the year 2010.  It’s time for lung cancer to matter too. Please join me and all the mayors, senators, legislators, doctors, friends and neighbors from all across our great country who are joining in droves to shout loud enough with the courage to make lung cancer matter too. A special thanks to Senator Chuck Hagel who is the recipient of our Luminosity Award at our upcoming November 9th fundraising dinner Gala to be held at San Francisco’s City Hall. Mr. Hagel sent us a letter last week which said, among other things, This Foundation is an inspiration to us all. Thank you and your colleagues for your continued contributions to this important effort. Hagel and Senator Hillary Clinton, who we are also awarding, paved the way for the unanimous passage of Senate Resolution 408 on May 9th asking the president to declare lung cancer as a national priority. 

Addario began her Foundation with Co-Founder Dr. David Jablons on March 6, 2006 to eradicate lung cancer through screening, research, education, prevention and treatment.http://www.abreathawayfromthecure.org

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reported that a compound related to vitamin A shows promise in preventing or slowing tumor growth in mice prone to lung cancer.

Novelos Therapeutics said Monday its potential lung-cancer drug is on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s fast track.

Exelixis has initiated a phase II clinical development program for its investigational drug XL647 in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

Here she is, our very own Bonnie, in the news.

Here is something you can give to your oncologist if he/she has questions regarding the effectiveness of thermal ablation, a new treatment option for lung cancer patients who are ineligible for surgery.? But act fast, Dr. Rundback’s Q & A session is on Monday, August 7th:

Dr. Rundback is available to talk about interventional radiology advances in lung cancer treatment using imaging and targeted thermal ablation. ?Only one-third of patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer are eligible for surgery. We can heat and destroy lung tumors, extend patients lives and maintain their quality of life. This non-surgical outpatient treatment is becoming widely available in the U.S.

According to results recently published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, treatment with the chemotherapy agent Alimta® (pemetrexed) with or without the chemotherapy agent Platinol® (cisplatin) provides benefit for patients with malignant mesothelioma who have received prior therapies.

GPC Biotech said on Wednesday it had started a Phase II trial to evaluate its lead drug, satraplatin, in combination with Tarceva to treat patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who cannot undergo surgery and are 70 years or older.

This article takes a more in-depth look at Chantix, and compares it to other stop-smoking methods.