NicVAX® (Nicotine Conjugate Vaccine) is an investigational vaccine designed as an aid to smoking cessation, as well as an aid to prevent relapses of a treated smoker leading to long-term abstinence.

NicVAX represents an extension of our conjugate vaccine technology that allows us to address a significant unmet medical need. We believe that broad commercialization of NicVAX requires large-scale sales and marketing programs focused on primary care physicians. As such we have secured an option and license agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the leading global pharmaceutical companies. GSK has also depth of vaccine development and commercialization as well as smoking cessation expertise that should be an asset in our effort to successfully bring NicVAX to market.

AURORA, ON, Jul 25, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Helix BioPharma Corp. CA:HBP +0.78% HBP -0.74% (frankfurt:HBP), a developer of biopharmaceutical drug candidates for the prevention and treatment of cancer, today announced that it has received approval from the Central Register of Clinical Trials at the Polish Ministry of Health of its European clinical trial application (“CTA”) to perform the Company’s planned Phase I/II clinical safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy study of its lung cancer drug candidate, L-DOS47.

L-DOS47 is Helix’s first drug candidate under development based upon the Company’s novel DOS47 technology, which is designed to modify the microenvironmental conditions of cancer cells in a manner that leads to their destruction. L-DOS47 is an immunoconjugate-based drug candidate intended to offer an innovative approach to the first-line treatment of inoperable, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic, non-small cell lung cancer (“NSCLC”).

ALMOST 2,000 patients have been recruited to a Welsh research trial which could cut the number of people dying from lung cancer.

The Fragmatic trial is the largest lung cancer trial in the world and could revolutionise the way the disease and other forms of cancer are treated.

It is studying whether a common, safe and cheap blood-thinning drug can prevent lung cancer from spreading throughout the body by preventing blood clots forming in the lungs.

Study found drug tripled survival — 13.1 months versus 4.6 months for chemo group — in those with EGFR mutation

Posted: July 22, 2011

By Amanda Gardner

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, July 21 (HealthDay News) — New research finds that the targeted cancer drug Tarceva nearly triples the amount of time lung cancer patients survive without a recurrence and has fewer side effects than standard chemotherapy.

The authors of a study appearing in the July 21 online issue of The Lancet Oncology recommend using Tarceva (erlotinib) as a first-line treatment for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer who have the particular gene mutation this drug targets. Other experts agreed.

I had stage-III lung cancer, and I’m alive today because of a medical miracle.

So when both chambers of Congress passed patent-reform bills this year to streamline U.S. patent law with overwhelming, bipartisan support, including Congressman Cory Gardner, I was thrilled. Now patent reform must be signed into law by President Barack Obama .

America is facing so many challenges at home and abroad, so why is patent reform a priority? Two reasons: (1) It is critical to our nation’s economic competitiveness, and (2) your life may depend on it.

A stronger U.S. patent system is crucial to our global economic competitiveness in all industries, especially in medical innovation. With a streamlined patent system, American inventors will have the incentives and protections necessary to drive innovation, create jobs and stimulate the economy.

ATLANTA, July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — During the 14th World Conference on Lung Cancer, leading users of Elekta Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) technology presented their findings on the use of SBRT to treat early stage, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The most common form of lung cancer, NSCLC arises from a number of causes, including active smoking, passive smoking (secondhand smoke), and exposure to other carcinogens.

In an oral presentation, Dr. Andrew J. Hope, Radiation Oncologist, Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto, Canada) discussed the experience of a multinational consortium of Elekta collaborators that has treated operable, early stage lung cancer. Titled, Outcomes of operable patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) treated with image guided stereotactic body radiation therapy (IG-SBRT), the consortium found that the 505 tumors in the 483 operable patients declining a thoracotomy and subsequently treated with IG-SBRT had overall survival and cancer-specific outcomes similar to reported surgical series. With the condition that additional follow-up would be required, the data support continued investigation of IG-SBRT, suggesting that IG-SBRT is potentially an equivalent alternative to surgery in operable patients with early stage lung cancer.

LEXINGTON, Mass., Jul 20, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. SNTA +1.27% , a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing small molecule drugs to treat severe medical conditions, today announced that the first patient has been treated in a Phase 2b/3 clinical trial of ganetespib in combination with docetaxel in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Ganetespib is a potent inhibitor of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) that is structurally unrelated to first-generation, ansamycin-family Hsp90 inhibitors such as 17-AAG or IPI-504, and has shown superior activity to these agents in preclinical studies. Ganetespib is currently being studied in broad range of Phase 2 trials, including NSCLC, with nearly 400 patients treated to date.

ScienceDaily (July 18, 2011) — Lung cancer is strongly correlated with smoking, and most lung cancer patients are current or former smokers. But it is not rare in nonsmokers. Now, a team of researchers from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL, shows that a protein called ID1 is a key player in lung cancer in both smokers and nonsmokers. The research is published in the July issue of the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Cancer biologists identify a driving force behind the spread of an aggressive type of lung cancer

A major challenge for cancer biologists is figuring out which among the hundreds of genetic mutations found in a cancer cell are most important for driving the cancer’s spread.

Using a new technique called whole-genome profiling, MIT scientists have now pinpointed a gene that appears to drive progression of small cell lung cancer, an aggressive form of lung cancer accounting for about 15 percent of lung cancer cases.

The gene, which the researchers found overexpressed in both mouse and human lung tumors, could lead to new drug targets, says Alison Dooley, a recent PhD recipient in the lab of Tyler Jacks, director of MIT’s David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Dooley is the lead author of a paper describing the finding in the July 15 issue of Genes and Development.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies have joined forces to reduce exposure to radon, one of the leading causes of lung cancer. According to the environmental agency, radon exposure causes some 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year and is the second leading cause of the disease in the United States.