Rates of death in the United States from all cancers for men and women continued to decline between 2003 and 2007, the most recent reporting period available, according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer. The report also finds that the overall rate of new cancer diagnoses for men and women combined decreased an average of slightly less than 1 percent per year for the same period.

It took complications from prostate cancer surgery for Charles Florsheim to discover he had lung cancer.A chest X-ray before a second operation showed a “vague density” that turned out to be the disease that kills more Americans than the three other leading cancers combined.”It came as a complete shock,” Florsheim said, sitting in his downtown Fort Worth law office 18 months after surgery to remove the upper and middle lobes of his right lung.He wanted to just walk away from the disease, he said. But his oncologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center drew him into the National Lung Cancer Partnership. Now, Florsheim’s promoting education about lung cancer and efforts to raise money for woefully underfunded research.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/30/2962438/deadliest-cancer-isnt-what-you.html#ixzz1KH2l9Bdz

ALCMI is an innovative, patient-founded non-profit research consortium that facilitates and drives comprehensively contracted collaborations among researchers in academic and community medical centers with the mission of significantly increasing the currently poor survival rates of patients diagnosed with lung cancer.
Approximately 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2011, and 1.3 million will die from it, worldwide.  In clear contrast to other cancers, the 5-year survival rate of lung cancer (15.5%) has not improved over the past 40 years.  More people die from lung cancer than six other top cancers combined—specifically breast, colon, prostate, kidney, liver and melanoma. Among the key contributors to this lack of progress have been the disproportionally low federal investment in research and a lack of meaningful coordination of efforts against lung cancer, resulting in late diagnoses, few and only temporarily effective therapies, and broadly inconsistent standards of care.

Even after her death, Jill Costello is making a difference — big time.

She died June 24, 2010, at age 22, less than a month after helping California to a second-place finish at the NCAA Division I Women’s Rowing Championships. Her experience battling lung cancer while earning a seat as the coxswain for the varsity eight and graduating from Berkeley in her final days was chronicled in the Nov. 29, 2010, issue of Sports Illustrated in an article titled The Courage of Jill Costello.

Her memory will be a part of the 2011 national regatta taking place Friday through Sunday at Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif. The NCAA is donating a dollar for every ticket sold to Jill’s Legacy, a group that will be on site for three days passing out flyers and bracelets to raise awareness. Jill’s Legacy is a newly-created advisory board for the California-based Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation that Jill became involved with following her diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer on June 6, 2009.

Workers involved in mustard-gas production during the World War II era showed heightened odds of lung cancer at a relatively young age — with the excess risk fading in old age, a new study finds.
Japanese researchers found that of workers employed at a poisonous-gas factory between 1929 and 1945, those directly involved in producing mustard gas saw their risk of lung cancer, while still rare, increase earlier in life compared with other workers.
For each year of exposure to mustard gas, workers’ lung cancer risk increased three to five years earlier, the researchers report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Counting the number of cancer cells circulating in a patient’s blood could help determine how aggressive a cancer is and predict the best treatment to use, say British scientists.
Researchers working with the charity Cancer Research UK report their latest findings in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy can slow the growth and spread of lung tumours, but in most patients the cancer returns and is also generally more resistant to treatment.

Freshmedx today announced the completion of a clinical trial at a major medical center in Baltimore. Freshmedx’s proprietary Computerized Bioconductance Test (CB Test™) showed favorable results in distinguishing between benign and malignant indeterminate masses by chest CT in undiagnosed individuals with lung cancer symptoms. In this trial, the CB Test™ demonstrated 90% sensitivity and 92% specificity in distinguishing between benign and malignant masses confirmed by biopsy or stable disease.

Cephalon is buying cancer drugs firm Gemin X Pharmaceuticals for $225 million in cash. Shareholders in the acquired firm could receive another $300 million in cash payments dependent on future regulatory and sales milestones.
“Gemin X and our investors have been very excited by the promise and potential of our obatoclax program in patients with extensive stage small cell lung cancer, a condition for which there has been no change in the standard of care for 25 years,” notes Peter R. Dolan, chairman and CEO at Gemin X. “This acquisition not only returns value to Gemin X’s shareholders, but most importantly it enables the rapid and efficient advancement of an innovative program in an indication where cancer patients desperately need safe and effective treatments.”

One of the country’s experts on lung cancer met with Beaufort Memorial Hospital physicians and staff this month to update them on the newest therapies to treat the deadly disease.Dr. Jeffrey Crawford, chief of medical oncology and principal investigator for clinical trials at Duke University Medical Center, presented the most recent data on drugs being used to try to extend the length of remission of advanced lung cancer patients.

Patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer can safely take an experimental oral drug intended to protect healthy tissue from the effects of radiation, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and published in this month’s issue of Human Gene Therapy.
The findings support further clinical testing of the agent, called manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) plasmid liposome, to determine if giving it alongside chemotherapy and radiation will prevent damage to normal cells that is the typical cause of side effects in cancer treatment, said senior investigator Joel S. Greenberger, M.D., professor and chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, Pitt School of Medicine, and co-director of the lung and esophageal cancer program at UPCI.
“If we can sufficiently protect tissues that are normal, we should be able to deliver our cancer treatments more effectively and perhaps even at higher doses,” he explained. “Our aim is to improve the quality of life of patients by minimizing side effects while providing the best treatment for their cancers.”