LungBlog

Shares of drug developer AstraZeneca fell Wednesday after the company reported mixed study results from its developing lung cancer treatment Zactima and as it faces new generic competition to its asthma drug Pulmicort.

Chemotherapy-naive patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) along with epidermal growth factor receptor mutations of the tyrosine kinase domain have greater responses to gefitinib than those who have received chemotherapy, according to Taiwanese researchers.

November 20 marks the American Cancer Society’s 33rd Great American Smokeout, a day encouraging smokers to quit for at least one day in the hope that this might help them stop permanently. We shall also not forget that November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, a month dedicated to raising awareness on the most devastating side effect of smoking: lung cancer.

 Non-small-cell lung cancer patients on chemotherapy who undergo treatment with proton beam radiation appear to suffer less bone marrow toxicity than those treated with conventional radiation therapy, researchers said here.

Canadian scientists may have discovered a genetic trait that could provide an early indication of which former smokers will develop lung cancer.

The research, reported Tuesday at the American Association for Cancer Research conference in Washington, D.C., is still in the preliminary stages.

Still, “the benefit would hopefully be more targeted treatment,” said study author Emily A. Vucic, a graduate student at British Columbia Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver.

There were no differences in overall survival between non-small-cell lung cancer patients treated with erlotinib (Tarceva) alone or in combination with standard chemotherapy, researchers found.However, monotherapy with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor showed some benefit for progression-free survival among patients with tumors exhibiting an activating mutation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, according to D. Ross Camidge, M.D., of the University of Colorado Health Science Center in Denver.

It’s three strikes for the oral multikinase inhibitor sorafenib (Nexavar) for treating advanced non-small-cell lung cancer in the ESCAPE trial.An updated analysis of the Evaluation of Sorafenib, Carboplatin and Paclitaxel Efficacy in NSCLC (ESCAPE) trial failed to show any advantage for sorafenib, researchers said at the Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium on Thoracic Oncology.

The widely used cancer drug Avastin appears to be associated with a greater risk of developing blood clots in the veins of patients with a variety of cancers.

Even with the number of people who smoke on the decline, there are agencies still working to help snuff out smoking altogether.

Thursday is the 32nd annual Great American Smokeout sponsored by the American Cancer Society.

The Great American Smokeout challenges smokers to stop using tobacco products and raises awareness of the many effective ways to quit for good.

 With more than 215,000 Americans estimated to be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008, Moffitt Cancer Center is doing its part to fight this disease by launching an awareness and education initiative addressing the facts surrounding lung cancer and showcasing how personalized medicine treatment techniques are breaking new ground for those diagnosed.