image by: Nanthiwan

HWN Suggests

Lung Cancer Awareness Month: Let's Clear the Smoke

Every November as I stand alongside thousands of patients to observe Lung Cancer Awareness Month, it is tempting to dwell on the uphill battle facing our cancer community. The daunting hurdles include adequate public education of early screening, funding shortages, dedicated research, trials, and the ominous stigma that lung cancer is solely a smoker’s disease.

But focusing only on the challenges would be a huge disservice. The fact is, the war against lung cancer is lightyears ahead of what it was 13 years ago, when I received my own life-altering diagnosis.

We aggressively advocate for patients’ rights. We bang on the door of researchers to ensure patients…

read full article

Featured

 Lung Cancer Was a Death Sentence. Now Drugs Are Saving Lives

There is more hope than ever for people diagnosed with the deadliest cancer. Declines in smoking and the advent of screening and newer drugs have transformed the outlook for patients with lung cancer, once considered a death sentence. Progress against the disease has propelled the drop in overall cancer deaths in the U.S. over the past three decades.

 Trial results for new lung cancer drug are ‘off the charts’, say doctors

More than half of patients with advanced forms of disease who took lorlatinib were still alive after five years with no progression.

Articles of Interest

A daily pill could cut lung cancer deaths in half, new study shows

The results of a new clinical trial are a ‘momentous achievement’ in the fight against the world’s leading cause of cancer death.

After 40 years of smoking, she survived lung cancer thanks to new treatments

Cancer that spreads from the lungs is the most lethal form of the disease, killing 135,000 Americans a year. But survival from lung cancer is dramatically improving thanks to new treatments and technology.

Amazing’ trial shows drug combination stops lung cancer advancing for longer

Doctors are hailing “amazing” trial results that show a new drug combination stopped lung cancer advancing for more than 40% longer than the standard treatment. Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8 million deaths every year. Survival rates in those with advanced forms of the disease, where tumours have spread, are particularly poor.

BiTE Therapy Emerges for Treating Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Until recently, there were few viable alternatives for treating small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). The primary first-line treatment is chemotherapy and checkpoint inhibitors such as durvalumab and atezolizumab. However, when patients progress, second-line therapy is not effective for most patients and does little to improve overall survival. BiTE therapy called tarlatamab has replaced chemotherapy as second-line treatment. “This is probably the biggest advance in small cell lung cancer since the approval of immunotherapy," says Nathan Pennell, MD, PhD...

F.D.A. Approves Drug for Persistently Deadly Form of Lung Cancer

The drug tarlatamab, or Imdelltra, made by the company Amgen, tripled patients’ life expectancy, giving them a median survival of 14 months after they took the drug. Forty percent of those who got the drug responded. After decades with no real advances in treatments for small cell lung cancer, tarlatamab offers the first real hope, said Dr. Anish Thomas, a lung cancer specialist at the federal National Cancer Institute who was not involved in the trial.

How Scientists Shot Down Cancer’s ‘Death Star’

After 40 years of effort, researchers have finally succeeded in switching off one of the most common cancer-causing genetic mutations in the human body. The finding promises to improve treatment for thousands of patients with lung and colorectal cancer, and may point the way to a new generation of drugs for cancers that resist treatment. Amgen tested its drug in patients with the most common type of lung cancer, called non-small cell cancer. The finding has already led to a new medication, sotorasib, by the drugmaker Amgen. Other companies are close behind with their own versions.

How to Fight Cancer (When Cancer Fights Back)

Understanding how the disease evolves is the key to stopping it.

Lung Cancer Patients Live Longer With Immune Therapy

Odds of survival can greatly improve for people with the most common type of lung cancer if they are given a new drug that activates the immune system along with chemotherapy, a major new study has shown. The findings, medical experts say, should change the way doctors treat lung cancer: Patients with this form of the disease should receive immunotherapy as early as possible.

Lung cancer: Predicting which patients are at high risk of recurrence to improve outcomes

Lung cancer is responsible for more deaths than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined. With advancements in lung cancer screening, it is expected that more patients will be diagnosed at earlier stages, enabling them to undergo surgery, the primary treatment modality for early-stage patients. However, a significant proportion of patients will have a recurrence of their cancer after resection (surgery to remove the tumour). Unfortunately, current clinical guidelines cannot help predict which patients are at risk. Better knowledge of who is at risk has significant implications for systemic therapy selection such as chemotherapy for early-stage lung cancer patients after surgery.

Research Yields Progress Against Lung Cancer

Newer approaches include immune-boosting drugs and treatments targeting genetic traits of tumors.

World-first lung cancer vaccine trials launched across seven countries

Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8m deaths every year. Survival rates in those with advanced forms of the disease, where tumours have spread, are particularly poor. Now experts are testing a new jab that instructs the body to hunt down and kill cancer cells – then prevents them ever coming back. Known as BNT116 and made by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease.

Resources

Cancer Research UK

This section tells you about the different treatments available for cancer of the lung.

Lung Cancer Alliance

In this section, you can learn about the tests and procedures used to identify treatment options and investigate the possible treatment options by type of lung cancer. You might also be interested in exploring the sections on how age may be a factor in treatment recommendations and how cancer that has spread may be treated.

Keytruda

KEYTRUDA is not chemotherapy or radiation therapy—it is an immunotherapy and it works with your immune system to help fight cancer. KEYTRUDA can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in any area of your body and can affect the way they work.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering

Depending on the type and stage of the disease, lung cancer can be treated using surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or a combination of these treatments.

NICE

The NICE lung cancer clinical guideline covers the full range of care that should be available from the NHS to adults who have lung cancer, or whose doctors think they may have lung cancer. They include how the diagnosis should be made and the treatments that should be offered at different times.

Seattle Cancer Care Alliance

Today, men and women facing lung cancer have more treatment options than they did even a few years ago. These new treatments have significantly increased survival rates for people with lung cancer.

Siteman Cancer Center

The lung cancer team at the Siteman Cancer Center provides nationally recognized expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of lung and other chest cancers.