LungBlog

Analyzing the genes expressed by cancer cells allows for a better understanding of that patient’s specific disease and in turn, a more personalized approach to treatment. But obtaining the RNA from a tumor in the lungs in order to conduct the genetic analysis is a challenging prospect. Currently, lung cancer researchers are limited to using RNA extracted from early-stage tumors removed during surgery. The small quantities of tissue extracted during routine diagnostic biopsies have not been useful to researchers, due to their small size and the variety of ways they have been processed.

Since oftentimes surgery is not an option in advanced lung cancer, genetic analysis of the tumor is critical, there is a need to obtain good quality RNA samples from tumor tissue taken via biopsy, no matter how the biopsy procedure is conducted.

WAYNE, N.J. and EMERYVILLE, Calif., June 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONXX) today announced that the final analysis of the Phase 3 NExUS (NSCLC research Experience Utilizing Sorafenib) trial evaluating Nexavar® (sorafenib) tablets in patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed that the study did not meet its primary endpoint of improving overall survival in the first-line setting.  NExUS evaluated Nexavar versus placebo in combination with two chemotherapeutic agents, gemcitabine and cisplatin.  A positive secondary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) was observed in the trial.  The safety and tolerability of the treatment triplet was as expected and did not show any new or unexpected toxicities.  Data from this study are expected to be presented at an upcoming scientific meeting.

Nexavar is currently marketed worldwide for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer, and advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), or kidney cancer.

A 65-year-old man with inoperable lung cancer has become the first lung cancer patient in India to receive stereotactic radiosurgery, a promising new approach for treating this disease.  Doctors at Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad were able to deliver the treatment using RapidArc technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR).

Several recent studies* have shown that lung cancer responds favorably to radiosurgery, which involves delivering the full dose in as little as one to five treatments. With the Varian RapidArc technology each radiosurgery session could be performed in just ten minutes, including patient setup and imaging, with the actual ‘beam-on’ time being as little as three minutes.

Okayama University Hospital said Friday it has succeeded in the world’s first autotransplantation operation using cooling conservation techniques to remove a man’s lung, extract cancer from it and put it back in the body.

The operation can protect a cancer patient from breathing failure and improve the quality of life.

The hospital said the operation was performed last month on a man in his 60s from Hiroshima Prefecture who was suffering from advanced cancer in the right lung and other parts.

It decided to perform the autotransplantation operation because it would not cause rejection or breathing problems from simply removing the lung.

In the operation, a conservation solution for transplantation was injected into the extracted right lung and cancer was removed after a cooling treatment was applied to last for eight hours. The lung was put back into the body after no cancer was confirmed in the lung.

The patient recovered his vital capacity up to about 70 percent and can play golf and do other exercise, according to the hospital.

Kidney problems are the second serious condition linked to the cancer drug. Last year it was found that some patients on Avastin were at elevated risk of intestinal perforations.

A widely prescribed cancer drug noted for its ability to choke off blood vessels that help tumors grow can cause significant kidney damage in some patients, a team of Long Island scientists has found.

Kidney problems are the second serious condition linked to Avastin and pinpointed in research conducted by Dr. Shenghong Wu and colleagues at Stony Brook University Medical Center. Last year Wu and his team found some patients on the drug were at elevated risk of intestinal perforations.

Patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring susceptibility mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) did better with first-line gefitinib than with standard chemotherapy, in a randomized trial in Japan.

In fact, the researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine for June 24th, they stopped the trial early because progression-free survival, the primary end point, was significantly longer with gefitinib at the interim analysis.

Rates of 1-year progression-free survival were 42.1% and 3.2% with gefitinib and chemo, respectively. Corresponding rates at 2 years were 8.4% and 0%.

This is not the first time dramatic results with gefitinib in this setting have been reported. The New England Journal published a study last year, for example, with more than 1200 treatment-naïve advanced NSCLC patients. That cohort had 12-month rates of progression-free survival of 24.9% with gefitinib and 6.7% with carboplatin-paclitaxel.

Patients with a specific kind of lung cancer may benefit from a Phase III clinical trial offered by the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. The new drug, crizotinib, under development by Pfizer, showed dramatic results in reducing lung cancer tumors in some patients during Phase I and II clinical trials.

“The results of the first two trials have been very encouraging,” said Lyudmila Bazhenova, MD, assistant clinical professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a member of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. “The Phase III clinical trials will be critical in determining if this drug goes to market.”

According to a preliminary study presented at the 2010 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Phase I/II clinical trials demonstrated that 57% of patients had their tumors reduced and at eight weeks of the treatment, 87% showed disease stabilization.

For J.K. Grant, participating in a test of a potential lung cancer vaccine is, as she puts it, her “civic duty.”

Grant was diagnosed with lung cancer last year, which resulted in surgery to remove tumors and parts of her right lung.

Shortly after, her physician asked if she would be willing to participate in a study testing whether a new vaccine is effective in preventing a recurrence of the most common type of lung cancer.

Grant didn’t hesitate. “No, not a bit,” said Grant, 65, of Everett. “It might help someone else.”

The vaccine is being tested at Providence Regional Cancer Partnership, one of 141 sites nationally and 400 sites across the world working on the study. A total of 2,270 patients are expected to participate.

The June edition of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology features a study aimed at determining the optimal dose of the chemotherapy drug nab-paclitaxel with carboplatin as a first-line therapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Results will provide researchers with a data needed to guide a phase 3 trial.

The most commonly used combination treatment for patients with NSCLC is carboplatin plus solvent-based paclitaxel. However, this current treatment has major safety and efficacy concerns, such as severe toxicities, nerve damage. As lung cancer is the leading cause of lung cancer death worldwide, there is a critical need for safe chemotherapy treatments to curb this disease.

In this multi-center study, researchers sought to determine the optimal dose of a chemotherapy treatment using a novel paclitaxel formulation, nanoparticle albuminbound (nab-), which can be administered safely at higher doses than the solvent-based paclitaxel and has performed well when treating breast cancer patients. One hundred seventy-five previously untreated patients were enrolled in the study and received treatment with nab-paclitaxel either on a weekly or every-three-week basis. Dosing levels were also investigated.

At the biggest annual cancer meeting taking place in Chicago, researchers unveiled strategies that are now working against some of the hardest-to-treat forms of Cancer.

For years we’ve been waiting for that one single cure that will wipe out all cancer. Chances are it will not happen that way. the more researchers learn about the disease, the more complex it becomes. But headway is being made in the treatment of skin, lung and ovarian cancers. Some approaches work by revving up the immune system, while others are more personalized, targeting specific genes.

Melanoma, the deadliest of skin cancers, is on the rise. If caught early it’s treatable. But, for those people where the disease has advanced, chances of recovery are grim. But researches say they have scored a victory: an experimental drug seems to stimulate the immune system so a patient’s own body does a better job fighting off the cancer.