Lung cancer occurs when cancerous cells develop in the lung tissue. And “the most common fatal cancer among men and women, and is the number one killer in the world. Lung cancer is the highest death rates from all cancers combined. People with risk factors of developing the disease should have regular checks to determine if they are cancer free.

Pfizer Inc. said it ended an advanced trial of its experimental lung cancer drug figitumumab after an independent safety committee determined the treatment was unlikely to improve patients’ survival.

The study, for use of figitumumab in patients with lung cancer, stopped enrolling patients in September after the committee found an “apparent imbalance” between the number of deaths and other complications among patients taking the medicine and those in control groups, the New York-based company said today in a statement.

Researchers from several U.S. medical centers have reported that 9% of patients hospitalized with pneumonia were diagnosed with pulmonary malignancy, but the median time from hospitalization to diagnosis is 297 days. The details of this study were published in the January 2010 issue of the American Journal of Medicine.[1]

Patients with lung cancer or metastatic cancers to the lung often develop pneumonia as the first clinical sign of disease. However, the incidence of pulmonary malignancies in patients with pneumonia has not been determined.

The rate of lung cancer in city dwellers is up, according to statistics contained in the Greater Saint John Community Foundation’s annual Vital Signs report.

In 2005, the rate for men was 126.4 per 100,000 total population, up from 115.1 in 2001. The rate in Canada in 2005 was 69.4, while New Brunswick’s rate was 84.6.

At the same time, the rate for women was 92.5 in 2005, up from 50.9 in 2001, while the rate in Canada was 46.8 in 2005, compared to 56.1 in New Brunswick.

GPs will be given computer software to help spot the early signs of cancer, it emerged yesterday.

Doctors will use a new programme to give patients their percentage chance of having cancer based on their including age, weight and symptoms such as bleeding or constant tiredness.

Anti-oestrogens as therapy for breast cancer may also reduce the risk of death from lung cancer, according to study results presented at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

“We found a reduction in lung cancer mortality among women treated with anti-oestrogens for breast cancer. This work builds on previous studies that had suggested oestrogens have a role in lung cancer development and progression,” said Elisabetta Rapiti, MD, MPH, medical researcher with the Geneva Cancer Registry, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD

Scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute say they have developed a compound that may be capable of halting a common type of drug-resistant lung cancer.

Their study is published in the Dec. 24/31 issue of the journal                                              Nature.

Lung cancer metastasis is one of the most frequent sites of a beginning metastatic cancer.

The patients with lung cancer metastasis are most commonly over forty with the average being approximately fifty-five. It’s found that a smoking is almost always usually present. Another likely possibility is that there will be no other cancer manifestation of then the very painful bone lesion.

Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday it has ended a late-stage lung cancer study of its experimental drug figitumumab after an analysis showed it was unlikely to meet the main goal of improving overall survival.

The analysis by an independent safety monitors found that adding figitumumab to two older therapies — paclitaxel and carboplatin — would be unlikely to meet the main goal, compared to paclitaxel plus carboplatin alone.

Scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute say they have developed a compound that may be capable of halting a common type of drug-resistant lung cancer.

Their study is published in the Dec. 24/31 issue of the journal Nature.

The researchers say the framework of the new compound is different from that of other cancer drugs and acts against a protein that carries a structural defect, according to a news release. That protein is known as an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase.