LungBlog

Smoking is such a well-known cause of lung cancer that many don’t realize thousands who never smoked get the diagnosis. The great majority are women. Recent research shows it’s really a different disease than smoking-related lung cancer. But those with the diagnosis say they suffer the same stigma.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

And here’s something else to consider: sometimes breathing problems signal some very serious and unexpected health problems. That’s certainly the case with lung cancer in people who have never smoked.

NPR’s Richard Knox has this story.

RICHARD KNOX: Jo Costello(ph) is 21. She’s a senior at UC Berkeley. She’s a member of the crew team. She never touched a cigarette, but she just got diagnosed with lung cancer.

Ms. JILL COSTELLO (Senior, UC Berkeley): I got back from national championships on June 1st, and then went to the trainer later that week with, like, abdominal bloating and just discomfort.

Ed Grace’s journey as a caregiver began in December of 2004 when his wife, Diana, a nonsmoker, was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer.

Over the next 2 1/2 years, the semi-retired aerospace engineer experienced many of the same emotional highs and lows as his wife as she underwent endless rounds of chemotherapy.

Grace, who had worked on the Apollo moon program, says he initially approached his wife’s illness as a problem to be solved, just as he would tackle an engineering problem.

He quickly learned that her cancer had its own agenda. In a diary he later published online, Grace writes about trying to stay upbeat while fighting anxiety, depression, and stress during the toughest days of his wife’s illness.

Preliminary findings from the first clinical trial in lung cancer to use molecular analysis of tumor biopsy samples and an “adaptive” design to direct patients to a specific targeted therapy were presented at the AACR annual meeting in Washington, DC. In the study, dubbed BATTLE, patients had their tumor samples tested for specific biomarkers and were enrolled into one of four treatment arms, each one testing a different targeted therapy, based on that analysis. (See the box below.)

The first 97 patients to enroll in BATTLE were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment arms as would traditionally be done. After that point, new patients were assigned to one of the arms based on a statistical model called an adaptive Bayesian model. In addition to using the result of the biomarker analysis, the model made the assignment based on findings from patients who had already undergone treatment, which, as the trial proceeds, are fed back into the model.

Twelve years ago in this space I wrote about my mom undergoing surgery for lung cancer.

I talked about her enduring nine weeks of chemotherapy before the surgery to remove a lobe of one lung. I also discussed the emotional turmoil the dreaded C-word diagnosis puts a family through and how I desperately hoped she could go home from Luther Hospital cancer-free.

Lange Productions announces “Be a Survivor – Lung Cancer Treatment Guide.” The book’s uniqueness is the positive, upbeat, encouraging tone that motivates and empowers lung cancer patients and their loved ones. Until now, lung cancer patients were under-informed about their options, and under-motivated to seek out cures. Many struggle under the negative stigma that their disease was self-inflicted. Physicians may approach them with less optimism, citing poor survival rates, leaving patients uninformed, and under-encouraged.

Hearing the word cancer strikes fear in nearly everyone. Most women dread breast cancer, but lung cancer is the deadliest enemy for women and men. The stunning reality is it’s no longer a smoker’s disease as many families are learning the hard way.

NewsCenter 5 anchor Heather Unruh’s mother Dee was diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago.

“I felt I needed to prop you two up. And your dad,” Dee said about the day she had to tell her daughters and husband what the doctors had found.

The news was especially stunning because Dee Unruh does not smoke.

“There is a stigma. No matter what. And the first question people always ask is, ‘Do you smoke?’ or they’d say, ‘But you don’t smoke,’” she said.

Neither do 60 percent of new patients, experts said.

The first ever actuarial analysis of lung cancer mortality, published today in Population Health Management Journal,  provides strong evidence that earlier detection could reduce the number of late stage lung cancer deaths by over 70,000 people each year in the US.

Calling the number “profound,” Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) President Laurie Fenton-Ambrose said, “This would be the equivalent of eliminating all deaths from breast and prostate cancer each year.  It clearly demonstrates why we must make research and development of earlier detection tools for lung cancer a public health priority.”

A SPECIALLY brewed ale to support 15 former Wales captains in their quest to reach the roof of Africa will go on sale in supermarkets this week.

The Up and Over Brains ale will be sold at Welsh Tesco Extras and superstores with 15p from every bottle going towards the £1m Brains SA Captains Climb appeal.

Former captains Ieuan Evans, Rob Jones, Gareth Thomas, Jonathan Humphreys and Bleddyn Bowen spent yesterday evening packing customers’ shopping bags as they launched the beer at the Tesco Talbot Green store.

… Up and Over was created by some of the team members who will climb Kilimanjaro in September to raise money for lung cancer research and awareness in Wales.

One of the more inspiring parts of the ING Miami Marathon on Sunday came five hours after the start, when 4,000 middle-school children ran the final mile as part of the ING Run for Something Better program.

… It was an emotional race for Cydney Greech, 43, and her husband, Ron, of Colorado Springs, Colo. Cydney raised $1,000 for cancer awareness and ran the marathon, her first, as a tribute to her mother, who is dying of lung cancer.

Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) announced today that Chuck Hagel, a former U.S. Senator (R-NE) and current co-chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, has become the first member of  LCA’s new Honorary Board.

“This is a great honor and privilege for Lung Cancer Alliance,” said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, LCA President & CEO.  ”We established the Honorary Board in order to thank those who have taken strong public positions on the need to change public health policy and increase research funding for all aspects of lung cancer.”