The long-awaited results of a trial of the biologic drug Erbitux on patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer show it prolonged survival by about five weeks when combined with chemotherapy.

 Lung cancer patients treated in a large clinical trial with ImClone Systems Inc’s Erbitux and chemotherapy lived about five weeks longer than patients treated with chemotherapy alone, according to study results released on Saturday.

Both she and a friend, Janice Stotz, were among the more than 460 people who enrolled during a four-hour period Saturday at the relay. It’s the third national study undertaken to understand how behaviors, lifestyles, the environment and genetic factors can cause or prevent cancer and other diseases. The first two studies unveiled the link between lung cancer and smoking and between aspirin use and the lower risk of colon cancer.

New treatments for lung cancer, the leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths, will be the focus of the nation’s premier oncology meeting that begins today in Chicago.The marquee study of the five-day American Society of Clinical Oncology could give victims of advance lung cancer another potentially powerful treatment option.

The study, set for release Sunday, seeks to determine whether Erbitux, co-marketed by ImClone Systems and Bristol-Myers Squibb, prolongs the lives of patients with advancd nonsmall cell lung cancer. The drug is currently approved for colorectal, head and neck cancer.

New data presented by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today highlighted the potential of its investigational MAGE-A3 Antigen-Specific Cancer Immunotherapeutic (ASCI) through results of three studies evaluating highly targeted immunotherapy as a treatment for metastatic melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These data were presented at the 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract Nos: 9065(1), 9045(2) and 7501(3)).

A cancer drug used to treat colon, head and neck cancer is said to boost survival rates in patients with certain type of lung cancer. Janet Babin reports dramatic Erbitux trial results could make prescriptions explode.

The UK National Archives have just released notes of cabinet meetings that took place over 50 years ago, from 1955 to 1956, among which are minutes of a meeting where the British prime minister and cabinet colleagues first reviewed emerging evidence of a statistical link between smoking and lung cancer and made the decision to wait and see rather than mount a public campaign.

I’m sorry. You don’t have breast cancer,” the oncologist told Charmaine Atkenson.The 48-year-old mother of two had something far worse — stage 4 lung cancer. It had spread to her spine, bursting the bone open. It was not only a sentence of death; it was a judgment.

Even though Atkenson never smoked, she felt almost ashamed. “I found that I never would even say what kind of cancer I had. Or I would always start by saying I never smoked and I never lived with a smoker,” she said in a telephone interview.

The American Cancer Society and Patient Advocate Foundation today announced a strategic collaboration that will give millions of cancer patients and their families quick access to timely information and specialized patient assistance resources. This collaboration will help to improve the lives of cancer patients nationwide who are facing access to health care issues.

The Catholic Church is investigating whether the curing of a Australian woman from inoperable lung cancer may be a miracle by Mary McKillop.