Researchers have found a gene that causes most inherited forms of neuroblastoma, a rare and deadly form of childhood cancer, and say the discovery points to new treatments.Mutations in a gene called ALK were strongly linked to neuroblastoma, the researchers from the United States, Italy and Belgium reported on Sunday. They said several companies already are working on drugs that target this gene, which is also mutated in some cases of lung cancer and lymphoma.

A Davison, Mich. man recently diagnosed with lung cancer filed an asbestos suit against nine defendant corporations alleging his disease was wrongfully caused.

Granny Ride was launched in 2001 by the family of Judy “Granny” Rubeck, a Putnam County woman who succumbed to lung cancer that year.

“While dealing with the fact that our loved one was terminally ill, we discovered firsthand the hardship of an adult getting financial assistance from anywhere or anyone,” said Rubeck’s daughter, Frances Cancilla, who has been the lead organizer of the event for the past four years, taking the mantle from her father, Jerry Rubeck.

A new study by scientists at the Environmental Chemistry department at Louisiana State University concludes that a new form of air pollutant, created from the fine particle residues in automotive exhaust pipes, smokestacks and household chimneys, has been identified which replicates the damage to humans caused by cigarette smoke. ‘Inhaling these pollutants exposes the average person up to 300 times

more free radicals daily than from smoking one cigarette’.

Odor profiling is also being tested for other cancers and conditions. Researchers have developed an “electronic nose” that may one day be used to diagnose asthma and a breath sensor that reportedly detects 75 percent of lung cancer cases. Another novel device, called the Sniff Magnitude Test (SMT), has the potential to detect early warning signs of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases

AT BRISBANE’S Prince Charles Hospital, Associate Professor Kwun Fong is evaluating what proportion of Australians’ lung lesions are cancerous. It is the sort of research needed to underpin any future lung screening program.

The ratio may differ between national populations. Climate, tuberculosis and fungal infections can all influence the likelihood that a growth in the lung – often smaller than a centimetre – might be cancer.

The biotech company that Justin Murdock, the son of Dole Food Co. owner David Murdock, leads has begun stage-III clinical trials for a lung cancer vaccine.

NovaRx, based in San Diego, is testing its Lucanix vaccine in about 700 patients with lung cancer – a disease which the American Cancer Society says is the number one cause of cancer death in the world.

He says the beet dye could one day be used to prevent lung cancer. He’s already shown similar disease fighting properties with black raspberries and esophogeal cancer.

He says developing so-called “neutraceuticals” make sense because they are cheaper and potentially safer than many pharmaceuticals

A patient comes to his doctor with a persistent cough, shortness of breath, chest pain. The doctor suspects lung cancer.What happens next? Typically, more tests, more appointments with more specialists. By the time treatment begins, up to two months might have passed.

That drawn-out process exhausts patients and delays treatment of an aggressive disease that kills more Americans than any other kind of cancer. So Morton Plant North Bay is trying something new in the county: A one-day clinic in which patients get a diagnosis and a treatment plan.