LungBlog

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust has introduced a new diagnostic test that promises easy lung cancer detection using sputum specimens.

State legislators recently took a step in the right direction by holding a hearing on the issue of statewide smokefree legislation. I hope they continue to represent the voices of thousands of constituents seeking statewide smokefree workplaces, including restaurants and bars, by passing House Bill 4163.

Pharmacyclics, Inc. today announced preliminary results from two open-label, multi-center Phase 2 clinical trials supporting the potential use of Xcytrin(R) (motexafin gadolinium) Injection, the company’s lead product candidate, in combination with Alimta(R) (pemetrexed) and in combination with Taxotere(R) (docetaxel) as a second-line treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who failed at least one platinum-based chemotherapy regimen. The results were presented today at the Eighth International Lung Cancer Congress in Wailea, Hawaii.

Jill Larsen (The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Australia) and her colleagues have used gene chips developed from the Human Genome Project to study lung cancers that directly invade neighbouring lymph glands compared with those that spread to these lymph glands via the lymph drainage system. Different expression patterns were found on the gene chips that could predict how lung cancer cells leave the main tumour growth and involve lymph glands, whose role is to slow down the progress of cancers and infections.

Tobacco smoking is the uncontested number one risk factor for lung cancer in men. Despite this, not all smokers develop this type of cancer. There may be several reasons for this, including genetics and lifestyle factors other than smoking. In addition to smoking, occupational exposure to inorganic dust and asbestos, dietary factors and alcohol intake have been linked to risk of lung cancer.

Epigenomics AG takes a further step towards launching a convenient blood-based lung cancer screening test that could considerably improve the early detection of lung cancer, the most common cause of cancer-related death. The molecular diagnostics company today announced positive data resulting from a clinical study as part of its lung cancer screening test development program.

 Lung cancer continues to carry the sad distinction as leading cause of cancer deaths but now a new pill may attack deadly changes in the lungs.

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) and Genentech, Inc. (NYSE: DNA) have formed acollaboration for the global research, development andcommercialization of two of Abbott’s investigational anti-cancercompounds. The companies will work together on all aspects offurther development and commercialization of ABT-263 and ABT-869,which were discovered by Abbott scientists.

There appears to be no reason not to integrate palliative care with standard oncology care for patients newly diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, according to a recent study by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined how a substance derived from the bark of the South American lapacho tree kills certain kinds of cancer cells, findings that also suggest a novel treatment for the most common type of lung cancer.