October 14th, 2011
October 17th – 24th has been designated as “Radon Awareness Week” in the U.S. by the Federal Government. Radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. The U.S. government has has known of this deadly household problem for over two decades. In fact, Ronald Regan passed the National Indoor Radon Abatement Act back in 1988 to address the problem. Despite over 22,000 lung cancer deaths that have occurred every year since the act was passed, it wasn’t until this year that the government actually put a plan of action into place!
On June 20th, 2011; the United States government passed the Federal Radon Action Plan. The plan calls for several branches of the U.S. government to implement programs to reduce the risk of lung cancer to the American public in their homes and workplaces. Among the government sectors called to action are U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the General Services Administration, and the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Interior, and Veterans Affairs.
July 7th, 2011
Newswise — PHILADELPHIA — Celecoxib may emerge as a potent chemopreventive agent for lung cancer, according to a recent study in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Researchers tested celecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor, among patients who were former smokers and found a significant benefit in bronchial health as measured by the Ki-67 labeling index, a marker of cellular proliferation or growth, as well as a number of other biomarkers. The findings follow a previous report published in Cancer Prevention Research that showed a similar effect on Ki-67 among former smokers and current smokers (Kim et al., Feb. 2010).
June 29th, 2011
By Jason Kane at the PBS Newshour
It’s official: CT scans reduce the risk of death for heavy smokers with lung cancer by 20 percent compared to chest X-rays.
After a nearly decade-long study, results from the National Lung Screening Trial were published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The findings made headlines in November 2010 when the National Cancer Institute announced that it had become clear that the group receiving three-dimensional X-ray tests known as low-dose helical CT scans had a significantly higher chance of surviving than those receiving standard chest X-ray tests.
It’s the first type of screening known to reduce the risk of death from lung cancer, despite a high rate of false positive tests from the scans.
March 25th, 2011
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.
March 1st, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Recent research suggests vitamin D may be able to stop or prevent cancer. Now, a new study finds an enzyme that plays a role in metabolizing vitamin D can predict
lung cancer survival.
The study, from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, suggests that this enzyme stops the anti-cancer effects of vitamin D.
Levels of the enzyme, called CYP24A1, were elevated as much as 50 times in lung adenocarcinoma compared with normal lung tissue. The higher the level of CYP24A1, the more likely tumors were to be aggressive. About a third of lung cancer patients had high levels of the enzyme. After five years, those patients had nearly half the survival rate as patients with low levels of the enzyme.
Researchers then linked this to how CYP24A1 interacts with calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D. CYP24A1 breaks down calcitriol, which has a normal and crucial role when kept in check. But when levels of CYP24A1 climb, the enzyme begins to hinder the positive anti-cancer effects of vitamin D.
Results of the study appear in Clinical Cancer Research.
January 4th, 2011
A blood test so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones is moving one step closer to being available at your doctor’s office.
Boston scientists who invented the test and health care giant Johnson & Johnson will announce Monday that they are joining forces to bring it to market. Four big cancer centers also will start studies using the experimental test this year.
Stray cancer cells in the blood mean that a tumor has spread or is likely to, many doctors believe. A test that can capture such cells has the potential to transform care for many types of cancer, especially breast, prostate, colon and lung.
July 14th, 2010
To determine how arsenic increases the risk of lung cancer and to identify potential treatments, a Michigan State University researcher will use $1.7 million in federal funding during the next five years to examine why certain genes disrupt cells, leading to the disease.
Chengfeng Yang, a physiology assistant professor with the College of Veterinary Medicine and MSU’s Center for Integrative Toxicology, will be studying the role of very small ribonucleic acids called microRNAs. These microRNAs regulate genes, which control how a cell behaves.
The research project, which will study those processes in cultured human cells and mice, is funded by the National Institutes of Health.
June 16th, 2010
While it may be a bit early to start popping supplements, a new study finds that people with high levels of vitamin B6 may be less likely to develop lung cancer than those with low concentrations. Reporting in the June 16 Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers also note a seemingly protective effect from high levels of the essential amino acid methionine and a weaker healthful effect from high levels of folate, another B vitamin.
It’s not yet established how high amounts of these compounds might protect the body from lung cancer, but all three are involved in the maintenance of DNA. In the vast majority of lung cancer cases, toxic smoke causes the DNA damage and aberrant cell growth that marks the disease.
June 12th, 2010
Bizarre though it sounds, it was a chipped tooth and an incompetent Mexican dentist that saved Brian Heit’s life.
Had he not damaged the tooth while on vacation, and had that dentist not made an awful mess of the repair work, lung cancer might have devoured Heit.
“I suppose it’s funny to think of, but I am serious. That saved my life,” the St. Catharines regional councillor says.
The dental work was so bad five years ago that Heit needed surgery in St. Catharines to fix it. As part of a routine pre operation work up, Heit had blood drawn and an x-ray of his chest taken.
“So shortly after the operation I’m at home and I get a call from my doctor asking me to come in and see him to discuss the results of my tests,” Heit says. “At first I was confused. I didn’t have any tests done. But it was the tests they did before my operation.”
The tests revealed Heit might have lung cancer. Later medical scans confirmed it.
“I was shocked. Totally shocked,” says Heit.
He had been a smoker but that was more than 20 years ago. How, he thought, could this have happened?
June 2nd, 2010
The makers of the early Cancer Detection lung test (CDT) hope it will help more people survive lung cancer.
Currently sufferers are diagnosed on their symptoms, which means it can often be too late for treatment.
The makers of the new test say it will improve diagnosis of the disease and Australian support groups are campaigning for the test to be available here.
Professor John Robertson of Nottingham University in Britain led the research and says the test identifies defences released by the human body in response to the earliest stages of the cancer.
