LungBlog

Patients who’ve had surgery for early-stage lung cancer are more likely to suffer cancer recurrence if their tumors contain a large number of immune-suppressing T-regulatory cells, a Duke University Medical Center study finds.

 Digilab, Inc. today announced it has reached an important milestone in its Peptidomics collaboration with Abbott Molecular. In the first phase of the project, Digilab has identified candidate biomarkers for lung cancer using its proprietary Peptidomics(R) Differential Peptide Display (DPD) technology platform. Abbott has exercised its right to evaluate option candidate markers for further use. Abbott has the option to acquire an exclusive royalty-bearing license from Digilab to such candidate markers.

The BC Cancer Agency has joined an international effort launched by Roswell Park Cancer Institute that has the potential to revolutionize the prevention, detection and treatment of lung cancer.

NCI ‘Committed to Addressing’ Lung Cancer Among American Indians, Official Says in Opinion Piece

Exposure to certain types of inhaled particles has been linked to increases in lung cancer risk. The December Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine is a special issue providing updates on particles and cancer.

The high cost of cancer - which kills a half-million people a year in this country - is distributed in part among hospitals and health insurers, but the government funds a lot of it. Part of the reason the cost is so steep is that for the uninsured, early screening rarely happens. “People who don’t have insurance are diagnosed at a much later stage when it is less treatable and more expensive… to treat them,” said Lisa Daglian, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society.

A new drug that literally chokes off the blood supply cancerous tumors need to thrive is holding out hope for people with advanced lung cancer.In a new study, Avastin (bevacizumab) led to better survival rates and longer times to the progression of the disease in people who received it along with standard chemotherapy drugs.

A group of heavy Marlboro smokers have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston, asking Philip Morris USA to pay for screenings that may detect the early stages of lung cancer, court documents showed on Friday.The class-action lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of current and former Marlboro smokers over 50 years old who smoked a pack or more a day for 20 years, demands the tobacco company pay for an annual low-dose X-ray scan of the chest.

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.

Half of patients having lung cancer surgery go back to smoking, according to new study.
The link between smoking and lung cancer is well known. You might think that having surgery for lung cancer would put people off smoking. This is not the case, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine. They studied 154 patients being treated for early stage lung cancer and found that nearly half of them started smoking again within a year of surgery.