Ongoing research at Missouri University of Science and Technology has uncovered a new method for the early detection of cancer with the potential to save millions of lives.

Still, cancer did not dominate, even on hospital shows, though Alexis Davis on “General Hospital” contracted lung cancer, and George’s dad and possibly Meredith’s mother succumbed to the disease on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

The new drugs work by destroying a protein called the EGFR, which naturally occurs in the skin, but also helps cancer cells thrive. In the top four deadliest cancers — lung, breast, colorectal and pancreatic — cancer cells start churning out huge amounts of EGFR to feed themselves and self propagate. The drugs that attack EGFR are prescribed for patients — about 100,00 so far — whose cancer has not responded to conventional chemotherapy.

But EGFR, which the drugs so handily wipe out, also is critical for the normal function of skin. Thus, about 90 percent of patients who take it have skin problems so serious that they feel embarrassed by their appearance

The conventional paradigm that a viable treatment for cancer will come from a toxic synthesized drug and not an alternative non-toxic remedy is reflected in how our research dollars are spent. For example, there are thousands of cancer clinical trials. Many of these are funded or partially funded by our tax dollars through the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Others are funded wholly by pharmaceutical companies, foundations, and medical centers. Cancer Monthly recently performed a cursory analysis to determine which and how many clinical trials are focused on alternative or complementary therapies. The results were disappointing, but not surprising.

Today the New York Times ran an article “exposing” a donation made in 2000 by the Vector Group, which owns Liggett, to the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program screening study and insinuated that the research and researchers were tainted.

Sadly, this is far from the truth and another attempt to discredit I-ELCAP and lung cancer screening in general. Why else raise this now? The donation was made 8 years ago, was publicly reported and was an unrestricted grant that allowed for no control by the donor.

LCA President and CEO, Laurie Fenton Ambrose responded to the NY Times reporter with a written letter (below).  We will not let those who want to deny the lung cancer community the benefits they deserve defeat our efforts.

 

The switching on and off of a specific set of genes, or methylation, in patients with stage I non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) appears to increase the risk of recurrence following surgery, researchers are reporting. In fact, when two of these genes were methylated (or switched off) in tissue samples from the tumor and mediastinal lymph nodes, the recurrence risk increased as much as 25-fold.

More than one million people have used Thomson Healthcare Profiler treatment option tools to help make treatment decisions for cancer, heart disease and lung disease, the company announced today.

The National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group (NCIC-CTG) will not continue into a planned large study of a new drug for non-small cell lung cancer after its current phase of testing showed the drug’s side effects outweighed the benefits.

Clinicians have been perplexed by the fact that some patients given the drug cetuximab (Erbitux®)–an immune-based therapy commonly used to treat persons diagnosed with head and neck cancer, or colon cancer–have a severe and rapid adverse reaction to the drug. Sometimes the reaction includes anaphylaxis, a life-threatening condition characterized by a drop in blood pressure, fainting, difficulty breathing, and wheezing. The drug is currently being tested in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.