Word: lungfuls
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...change in managing cancer reflects a series of hard-won improvements in treatment - not, alas, for every form of cancer, but particularly for breast, colon, prostate and even lung. The gains include an explosion of new drugs that are more targeted and less toxic than old-school chemotherapeutic agents. In addition, new tests are beginning to help doctors match drugs more precisely to the genetic and molecular makeup of an individual tumor. Finally, there are remarkable advances in managing the side effects of treatment, which, in the past, could be as debilitating as cancer itself...
...treatment to the tumor. Oncotype Dx, introduced in 2004, looks at 21 genes in biopsied tissue to determine whether or not chemotherapy will be helpful for early breast cancer patients with recent diagnoses. At Duke University, molecular geneticist Joseph Nevins is testing a similar gene-based test for lung cancer. Researchers are aiming for tools that will tell them not only whether chemo is needed but also which specific drugs to use. Such a screen already exists for Herceptin, and many others are in development. Meantime, at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Dr. Roy Herbst, chief of thoracic...
...Patients whose cancer moves into the bone tend to survive longer than those with metastases in the liver or lung. Russell says that she has a few patients who have survived 10 years with bone involvement, but this is extremely rare. The fact that Elizabeth Edwards relapsed just a little over two years after initial treatment is a bad sign, suggesting that her cancer is very aggressive. On the plus side, though, is that Edwards' disease is "low volume", according to her oncologist, Lisa Carey of Chapel Hill, N.C., meaning little tumor is present. Also favorable, says Russell, is that...
...time he completed his job as medical director of the U.S. Surgeon General's landmark 1964 report linking smoking to lung cancer, Peter Hamill, who started lighting up in medical school, had quit. The experts Hamill oversaw analyzed 8,000 studies from around the world, finding a 70% increase in the mortality rate of smokers over nonsmokers. The report changed public perceptions and prompted tobacco companies to add warnings on cigarette boxes...
Early cancer testing is always a good idea, but it might not be a lifesaver. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that CT scans to detect lung cancers may not result in fewer deaths. Using statistical models, the authors calculated that when small lesions were diagnosed in patients, they ended up with the same mortality rate as those not screened. It turns out that the scans could pick up growths that do not progress into deadly cancer. However, another study, published last fall, found that screening shrinks death rates. The definitive trial...