Lung Cancer Blog

May 26, 2008, 8:08 PM CT

Genetic mutation and risk of lung cancer

Carriers of a common genetic disorder previously associated with lung disease may have a 70-percent to 100-percent increased risk of lung cancer, as per a report in the May 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The disorder, alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency (1ATD), is one of the most common genetic conditions affecting the U.S. population and particularly those of European descent, as per background information in the article. Individuals with two copies of the associated genetic mutation often develop emphysema at an early age. However, 1ATD carriersthose with only one copy of the mutated genedo not normally have severe diseases correlation to 1ATD and may not be aware of their status. However, they may be more vulnerable to cancer-causing tobacco smoke than non-carriers.

Ping Yang, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., tested for 1ATD carrier status in 1,443 lung cancer patients. In addition, 797 community members without lung cancer and 902 siblings of patients with lung cancer were tested as controls. Information was gathered about all participants smoking history, demographic characteristics and family history of cancer.

A total of 13.4 percent of the patients with lung cancer and 7.8 percent of unrelated controls were 1ATD carriers. When lung cancer patients were in comparison to non-related controls, 1ATD carriers had a 70 percent higher risk of developing lung cancer than non-carriers. Comparing lung cancer patients to their cancer-free siblings, 1ATD carriers had twice the risk of developing lung cancer. The scientists estimated that 1ATD carrier status may account for 11 percent to 12 percent of the lung cancer patients enrolled in the study......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

April 2, 2008, 10:14 PM CT

Researchers ID gene linked to lung cancer

Scientists at Johns Hopkins, as part of a large, multi-institutional study, have found one gene variant that is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. The study would be reported in the April 3 issue of Nature Genetics.

The research team collected DNA from 1,154 smokers who have lung cancer and 1,137 smokers without lung cancer. Each DNA sample was analyzed at more than 300,000 points, looking for variationsknown as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs for shortbetween those with cancer and those without. They then analyzed the top 10 SNPs in an additional 5,075 DNA samples from smokers with and without lung cancer.

Two of the 10 SNPs were consistently linked to lung cancer risk and both of them are located in chromosome 15 inside a region that contains genes for the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha subunits 3 and 5, which already are suspected to play a role in lung cancer progression.

The research team then wondered if these genetic associations relate to nicotine dependence, and observed that the same two SNPs also are weakly linked to smoking behavior.

The power of genome-wide analysis is to look at a number of markers and a number of samples at once, which can reveal weak genetic associations in complex diseases like lung cancer. says Kimberly Doheny, Ph.D., assistant director of the Center for Inherited Disease Research at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

April 1, 2008, 9:08 PM CT

New method to test for lung cancer

Scientists from Boston University School of Medicine have developed a new clinicogenomic model to accurately test for lung cancer. The model combines a specific gene expression for lung cancer as well as clinical risk factors. These findings currently appear on-line in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the world, with more than one million deaths worldwide annually. Eighty-five to 90 percent of subjects with lung cancer in the United States are current or former smokers with 10 to 20 percent of heavy smokers developing this disease.

A prior study by the same scientists reported a gene expression biomarker capable of distinguishing cytologically normal large airway epithelial cells from smokers with and without lung cancer. However, the biomarker has limited sensitivity depending on the stage and the location of the cancer.

Studying current and former smokers undergoing bronchoscopies for suspicion of lung cancer, the scientists compared the likelihood of the subjects having lung cancer using the biomarker, the clinical risk factors and a combination of the two -- clinicogenomic model. They found patients using the clinicogenomic model had increased sensitivity, specificity, positive value and negative predictive value of their cancer in comparison to the other methods......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

March 9, 2008, 5:18 PM CT

Cannabis based medicines may help smokers to quit

Smokers trying to quit in the future could do it with the help of cannabis based medicines, as per research from The University of Nottingham.

Teams of pharmacologists, studying the cannabis-like compounds which exist naturally in our bodies (endocannabinoids), are exploring the potential for medical therapy. This includes treating conditions as diverse as obesity, diabetes, depression and addiction to substances like nicotine.

Researchers have known about endocannabinoids since the mid-1990s. This led to an explosion in the number of scientists looking into the future medical uses of cannabinoids and cannabis compounds.

Dr Steve Alexander, Associate Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences, focused on many these projects in editing the first themed podcast for the British Journal of Pharmacology.

Dr Alexander said: "It is clear that there is very realistic potential for cannabinoids as medicines. Researchers are looking at a range of possible applications".

One of these scientists is Professor David Kendall, a cellular pharmacologist at the University: "The brain is full of cannabinoid receptors. And so, not surprisingly with diseases like depression and anxiety, there's a great deal of interest in exploiting these receptors and in doing so, developing anti-depressant compounds"......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

March 4, 2008, 5:22 PM CT

Surgery for lung cancer better att teaching hospitals

Patients cared for by hospitals with residents in training have a 17 percent less chance of dying after lung cancer surgery compared with patients undergoing surgery at non-teaching hospitals, as per results of a Johns Hopkins study reported in the recent issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Theres a public perception that teaching hospitals can be dangerous places because of training issues, and concerns are frequently voiced by patients and echoed in the press regarding a fear of physicians-in-training practicing on them, says the lead author of the paper, Robert Meguid, M.D., a surgical resident at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The data from our study help refute these fears.

The Johns Hopkins researchers looked at data from 46,951 patients, ages 18 to 85, who underwent surgery for lung cancer at hospitals across the United States between 1998 and 2004. Operations ranged from small lung-segment removal to total lung removal.

The scientists tracked discharges and deaths, and compared patient outcomes at three different types of hospitals - those with any type of doctor specialty training program, those with general surgery training programs and those with thoracic surgery training programs. They took into account factors such as age, gender and other illnesses of each patient, and they also took into consideration the number of each of the different types of lung cancer surgeries that each hospital performed......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

February 6, 2008, 9:24 PM CT

PET Outperforms CT In Malignant Lung Nodules

Researchers involved in a large, multi-institutional study comparing the accuracy of positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) in the characterization of lung nodules found that PET was far more reliable in detecting whether or not a nodule was malignant.

"CT and PET have been widely used to characterize solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) as non-cancerous or malignant," said James W. Fletcher, professor of radiology at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Ind. "Almost all previous studies examining the accuracy of CT for characterizing lung nodules, however, were performed more than 15 years ago with outdated technology and methods, and previous PET studies were limited by small sample sizes," he noted.

"Detecting and characterizing SPNs is important because malignant nodules represent a potentially curable form of lung cancer. Identifying which SPNs are most likely to be malignant enables physicians to initiate the proper therapy before local or distant metastases develop," said Fletcher.

In a head-to-head study addressing the limitations of previous studies, PET and CT images on 344 patients were independently interpreted by a panel of experts in each imaging modality, and their determination of non-cancerous and malignant nodules were compared to pathologic findings or changes in SPN size over the next two years......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

January 28, 2008, 10:57 PM CT

Number of Russian women smokers has doubled

In 1992, seven per cent of women smoked, compared to almost 15 per cent by 2003. In the same period, the number of men who smoke has risen from 57 per cent to 63 per cent.

The researchers behind the study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, blame the privatisation of the previously state owned tobacco industry and the behaviour of the transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) for what they describe as a "very worrying increase".

Between 1992 and 2000, TTCs such as Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International invested approximately US$1.7 billion to gain a 60 per cent share of the privatised Russian tobacco market.

Tobacco advertising had simply not existed in the Soviet era. Yet as soon as the TTCs were there, it was rampant, say researchers. By the mid 1990s it was estimated that half of all billboards in Moscow and three quarters of plastic bags in Russia carried tobacco advertising.

"There can be no doubt that the marketing tactics of Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and the like directly underpin this massive increase in smoking that spells disaster for health in Russia," said Dr Anna Gilmore from the School for Health at the University of Bath, who carried out the study with academics from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and University College London, and has been researching tobacco control in the region for over seven years......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

January 10, 2008, 10:33 PM CT

Cells That Promote Formation of Lethal Lung Metastases

Cancer patients commonly ask what can be done after a primary tumor has already spread, or metastasized, to other organs. In a number of cases, they learn, little can be done. Hence the importance of a discovery by researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) of a type of cell that regulates the transformation of small, dormant lung metastases into large, aggressive metastases - the kind that kill cancer patients.

The cells that promote the metastatic transformation are called endothelial progenitor cells, or EPCs, and are found in the bone marrow. The CSHL research team reports in the January 11 issue of Science that EPCs regulate an "angiogenic switch" - a key mechanism that causes formation of blood vessels in tumors and triggers tumor growth.

"A majority of cancerous primary tumors have already spread to other organs by the time they are clinically diagnosed," noted Vivek Mittal, Ph.D., head of the CSHL research team and corresponding author of the Science paper. "Current efforts are focused on preventing metastatic spread, yet, paradoxically, insights have been lacking on how dormant metastatic lesions, after they have colonized distant organs, grow into large, lethal lesions."

"Our study has focused on cells from primary tumors in mice that have spread and established micrometastases in secondary organs such as the lung," said Dingcheng Gao, Ph.D., a CSHL postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the Science paper. "We've dissected the heart of the angiogenic switch and demonstrated that micrometastases recruit EPCs from the bone marrow. These EPCs, in turn, regulate the angiogenic switch that activates blood-vessel growth and transforms these dormant lesions into life-threatening macrometastases"......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

January 8, 2008, 5:13 AM CT

Improving the prognosis of lung cancer

A group of researchers led by Professor Xavier Pars of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona, has published a research on AKR1B10, an enzyme that is detected in large quantities only in lung cancers, especially those caused by smoking. This enzyme can appear even when the cancer has still not developed and lesions are premalignant. Thus this molecule would serve as a good marker in the diagnosis and prognosis of the disease. Moreover, its activity could play a relevant role in the development of lung cancer, which makes the research of great interest for potential future therapeutical applications as well.

As per researchers, both the experiments using test tubes and cell cultures revealed that the enzyme lowers the levels of the most active form of vitamin A (retinoic acid), a strong antimalignant agent. This is achieved by its strong retinal reductase activity, which favours chemical reduction transformation, thus causing retinal, the precursor of retinoic acid, to transform into its least active form, retinol.

Retinoic acid is present in several biological processes - from fetus development to cell proliferation and differentiation - by controlling the expression of certain genes. The reduction of this acid within cells, which is precisely the effect produced by the enzyme under study, is linked directly to the lack of cell differentiation and therefore favours the development of the cancer. In order to discover why the enzyme acts this way, researchers obtained and studied its three-dimensional structure and located the elements responsible for its role in the onset of cancer among smokers. The identification of these structural elements makes it possible to create a specific design for drugs that can treat this disease. In fact, scientists were able to observe how the substance tolrestat, used as an inhibitor of the enzyme AKR1B1, or aldose reductase, responsible for a number of secondary complications of diabetes, also worked to inhibit the activity of the enzyme AKR1B10. Since both enzymes contain similar structures, research was carried out on its possible applications in the therapy of diabetes......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

January 2, 2008, 10:47 PM CT

Smoking rate among New York City teens

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz released new data today from the 2007 New York City Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) showing that cigarette smoking among New York City teens declined by 20 percent between 2005 and 2007. The citys teen smoking rate has dropped by more than half over the past six years, from 17.6 percent in 2001 to 8.5 percent in 2007. The current rate that is about two thirds lower than the latest available national teen smoking rate of 23 percent. The Mayor linked the continuing decline which far exceeds the national decline to the Citys sustained efforts to reduce smoking among adults. Those efforts include a tax increase, the smoke-free workplace law, and TV and subway ads that graphically depict the realities of tobacco-related illnesses.

"In 2001, roughly one out of every six high school students smoked. Today, that has fallen to about one out of every 12 or about 8.5 percent of students," said Mayor Bloomberg. "The reduction in teen smoking weve achieved in New York City will eventually prevent at least 8,000 premature deaths. Ultimately, these new numbers prove what we in New York have long believed: when you take bold public health measures, you get results"......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

December 6, 2007, 8:14 PM CT

High school activities lowers risk of smoking

Scientists from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania reported today that students who participate in high school sports or individual physical activity are less likely to smoke than their classmates. The new study indicates that the protective effect of participation extends at least three years beyond graduation. The Penn team discovered, however, that girls do not derive the same level of protection from school sports as do boys.

Daniel Rodriguez, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, reported that an adolescents self-assessment and sense of physical competence was an important aspect in smoking prevention. Students who feel successful continue to participate and are less likely to start negative behaviors. I visualize this as a fork in the road, Rodriguez said. If you are successful, then you continue doing sports. If you are not successful, then you are now in need of other reinforcement and start looking for other things. In that case, things like smoking become open to you.

Given the data, Rodriguez recommends that parents make an effort to get their children involved in organized activities whether it is a physical sport, like track and field, or some other organized activity, like the chess team and that they teach them how to properly evaluate their own skills. It is important that children learn to compare their current skills or performance to their past performance and not to that of their teammates or opponents. That way they can feel good about their skills, even if they are not the best at something......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

November 27, 2007, 10:15 PM CT

Tobacco marketers targeting teens near schools

Joe Camel may be long gone, but that doesnt mean tobacco marketers have abandoned their efforts to get young people hooked on smoking.

A new Canadian study reports that tobacco marketers have found a way around tobacco advertising restrictions, reaching teens by marketing in retail shops located near high schools. The findings, reported in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, suggest the strategy is working.

At the time of the study, we observed that, in comparison to retail stores near schools with low smoking prevalence, stores near schools with high smoking prevalence had significantly lower prices per cigarette, more in-store promotions and fewer government-sponsored health warnings, said University of Alberta researcher and co-author of study Candace Nykiforuk.

The tobacco marketing activity that takes place in storesknown as point-of-purchase (PoP) marketingis a sophisticated strategy designed to counter positive public health initiatives such as tax increases on tobacco, policies restricting cigarette advertising, and anti-smoking legislation, says Nykiforuk. U.S.-based studies have estimated that three out of four adolescents visit retail shops at least once a week, which makes the retail store a powerful venue where teens can be exposed routinely to PoP marketing......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

November 13, 2007, 9:37 PM CT

Tumor-suppressor gene for lung cancer

The GPRC5A gene, which is under-expressed in human lung cancer cells, suppresses lung tumors in mouse models and could provide a key to attacking lung cancer in humans, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Nov. 21 edition of The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study observed that mice with both of their GPRC5A genes suppressed developed normally until their second year of life, when 76 percent developed premalignant lesions called adenomas in their lungs and another 17 percent developed malignancies called adenocarcinomas. Only 10 percent of mice with both GPRC5A genes intact developed adenomas, and only 11 percent with one working version of the gene. None of the mice in the latter two groups developed lung cancer.

"In humans, lung adenocarcinomas are the most common type of lung cancer and the major cause of death from this disease," says senior author Reuben Lotan, Ph.D., professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Thoracic/ Head and Neck Medical Oncology. "Further study substantiating the role of the GPRC5A gene in human lung cancer could lead to the development of novel approaches for lung cancer prevention, diagnosis and therapy".

Lung cancer is the leading cause of deaths by cancer, killing 160,000 Americans annually......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

November 12, 2007, 8:54 PM CT

Compound Promotes Death Of Lung-cancer Cells

Human lung-cancer tumors grown in mice have been shown to regress or disappear when treated with a synthetic compound that mimics the action of a naturally occurring "death-promoting" protein found in cells, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center report.

The findings, appearing in today's issue of Cancer Cell, suggest that the compound might one day be used in targeted therapies for lung and possibly other cancers, the scientists said.

"We observed that certain kinds of lung-cancer cells were sensitive to this compound, which sends a signal to cancer cells to self-destruct," said Dr. Xiaodong Wang, professor of biochemistry at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study.

In 2000, Dr. Wang announced the discovery of a cellular protein called Smac, which plays a key role in the normal self-destruction apparatus present in every cell. This process, called apoptosis, is activated when a cell needs to be terminated, such as when a cell is defective or becomes unnecessary during normal growth and development. In cancer cells, the self-destruct mechanism is faulty.

In 2004, Dr. Wang and colleagues developed a compound that mimics the action of Smac. They observed that in cell cultures, the compound killed cancer cells but left healthy cells unaffected. In those studies, however, the Smac mimic only killed cancer cells when it was introduced along with another molecule often involved in the cell-death machinery, called tumor necrosis factor-a, or TNFa......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

November 5, 2007, 9:37 PM CT

CAD plus MDCT useful in finding lung nodules

Computer-aided detection combined with MDCT improves radiologists ability to detect solid lung nodules early enough for them to be treated without increasing interpretation time as per a recent study conducted by scientists at Hopital Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris, France.

The comparison of a current examination with previous examinations is a time-consuming and tedious task, said Philippe A. Grenier, MD, lead author of the study. This study wanted to evaluate the potential of a computerized automated system to improve human efficiency in this way, and determine whether CAD systems improve the detection of actionable lung nodules, he said.

The study consisted of 54 pairs of low-dose MDCT chest exams. The CAD system detected 52 nodules that were 4 mm or larger in 25 exams. One cancer was initially missed by one radiologist but was correctly identified with CAD input. On average, readers spent 4-5 minutes per case to read the paired exams on CAD and 6-8 seconds per CAD mark. The CAD system successfully matched 91.3% of nodules detected in both exams.

This demonstrates the added value of CAD systems as a second reader, CAD was sensitive allowing us the potential to assess more accurately the growth of indeterminate nodules, without compromising the reading time, said Dr. Grenier......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

November 4, 2007, 2:44 PM CT

New insights into lung cancer

An international consortium of researchers today in an advanced online publication in the journal Nature revealed a comprehensive view of the altered genetic background of the type of lung cancer that is the most common cause of cancer deaths in humans.

Of particular interest was a specific proto-oncogene called NKX2-1 that appears involved in as a number of as 12 percent of lung adenocarcinomas the most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide, said the group, whose work was in part financed by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). The group noted, however, that analysis indicates that a number of of the genes that play a role in the disease remain to be discovered.

This view of the lung cancer genome is unprecedented, both in its breadth and depth, said senior author Dr. Matthew Meyerson, a senior associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., and an associate professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston. It lays an essential foundation, and has already pinpointed an important gene that controls the growth of lung cells. This information offers crucial inroads to the biology of lung cancer and will help shape new strategies for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The report is the first to emerge from the Tumor Sequencing Project that involves three genome centers: Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston, The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT in Cambridge, Mass., and Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.; and five cancer centers: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the University of Michigan and Washington University......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

October 29, 2007, 10:20 PM CT

Preventing lung scarring in lung cancer patients

Scientists have observed that using a special type of drug called a pharmaceutical monoclonal antibody to block the integrin beta6-TGF-beta pathway prevents a serious side effect of radiation treatment for patients with lung cancer pulmonary fibrosis (scarring of the lungs), thereby extending patients lives and improving their quality of life, as per a research studypresented at the Plenary I session on October 29, 2007, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncologys 49th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

The toxicity of pulmonary fibrosis limits the amount of the radiation dose that can be safely given to patients, said Simon Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., an author of the study and a radiation oncologist at New York University Medical Center in New York. These study results may lead to more effective radiation therapies for advanced lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.

More than 50 percent of patients receiving radiation treatment for advanced lung cancer develop radiation-induced lung fibrosis, a painful side effect that can affect patients quality of life and, in some cases, can be fatal. Pulmonary (lung) fibrosis involves inflammation and scarring of the lungs causing patients to feel short of breath, have a chronic dry cough, feel fatigue and pain in the chest, and suffer loss of appetite and weight loss. Over time, fibrosis causes the air sacs of the lungs to be replaced by scar tissue, causing difficulty breathing and an irreversible loss of the tissues ability to transfer oxygen into the bloodstream......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

October 10, 2007, 5:46 PM CT

Early warning system for lung cancer

An immune system protein could act as an early warning system for lung cancer, reveals research published ahead of print in the journal Thorax.

Lung cancer kills around 900,000 people every year, and can take 20 years or more to develop fully. But it is commonly only picked up at an advanced stage, when the chances of successful therapy are slim.

As yet, there is no effective early warning system to detect the disease in its early treatable stages, and the dismal long term prospects of lung cancer patients have changed little in the past 30 years.

The research team analysed blood (plasma) samples from 50 healthy volunteers and 104 people with different types of lung cancer.

They tested for autoantibodies - immune system proteins directed at the bodys own tissues in response to specific chemical signals in the body.

They looked in particular for a panel of seven autoantibodies, which are linked to solid tumours, such a lung, breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers, and triggered when malignant changes are taking place.

They found the presence of all seven autoantibodies, and very high levels of at least one of the seven in almost eight out of 10 samples taken from patients with confirmed lung cancer.

And these autoantibodies were found in eight out of the nine patients whose cancer had not infiltrated the lymph nodes, the bodys gatekeepers......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

September 26, 2007, 8:52 PM CT

Lung cancer subtype and treatment outcomes

In clinical research, patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that are classified as having a non-squamous histology achieve statistically significant higher survival when treated in the second-line setting with ALIMTA (pemetrexed for injection) when in comparison to histologically-similar patients treated with docetaxel. The data (ECCO Abstract # 6521) were presented at the 14th European Cancer Conference (ECCO) in Barcelona. ALIMTA, manufactured and marketed by Eli Lilly and Company, is currently indicated for the second-line therapy of advanced NSCLC in more than 85 countries.

The retrospective analysis of Phase III data consisted of 571 patients. The analysis showed that non-squamous patients treated with ALIMTA achieved a statistically higher overall survival in comparison to those treated with docetaxel (9.3 months and 8.0 months, respectively; hazard ratio 0.778 [95% CI 0.607-0.997]). On the other hand, the analysis suggested that patients with a squamous histology and treated with docetaxel had a statistically higher overall survival in comparison to those treated with ALIMTA (7.4 months and 6.2 months respectively; hazard ratio 1.563 [95% CI 1.079, 2.264]). Patients with a non-squamous histology represented the majority of the patients on the trial......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

September 10, 2007, 9:06 PM CT

Genetics of smoking cessation

A genetic variant present in nearly half of Americans of European ancestry is associated with greater effectiveness of the smoking cessation medicine bupropion (Zyban), as per research by researchers supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). People with this variant were less likely than those without it to have resumed smoking six months after therapy with bupropion.

The study, reported in the recent issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry, is a step toward the goal of being able to tailor smoking cessation therapy to individuals based on their unique genetic make-up.

"This study is part of our ongoing commitment to develop more accurate and personalized approaches to medicine," said NIH Director Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni. "This kind of genetic research is helping us to better understand why some people respond to certain smoking cessation therapys, and others don't."........ Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

September 3, 2007, 12:51 AM CT

Radiation and drug combo for lung cancer

Combining radiation treatment with a drug that helps destroy blood vessels nourishing cancerous tumors has been shown in mice to be significantly more effective in treating lung cancer than either approach alone, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

The study, involving human lung-cancer cells implanted in mice, appears in the Sept. 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

In the study, Dr. Philip Thorpe, professor of pharmacology at UT Southwestern, and colleagues observed that radiation generates a chemical reaction in the membranes of endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels that feed tumors. The reaction causes membrane components called anionic phospholipids to flip inside out, exposing them. In normal blood vessels, they face the interior of the cell.

Dr. Thorpes prior research has shown that anionic phospholipids, especially one called phosphatidylserine, are already flipped inside-out on tumor endothelial cells.

The flipping is likely due to stress conditions present in the tumor micro-environment, and radiation increases the number of exposed phospholipids, said Dr. Thorpe.

Once they induced more flipping with radiation, the scientists administered bavituximab, a monoclonal antibody that homes in on tumor vessels by selectively binding to the inside out phospholipids. The binding signals white blood cells from the immune system to attack and destroy the vessels feeding the tumor......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source

August 27, 2007, 8:05 PM CT

Avastin approved in Europe for advanced lung cancer

Roche's innovative anti-cancer drug, was approved today in Europe for the first-line therapy of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy.

NSCLC is the most common form of lung cancer, a difficult to treat disease that kills over 3,000 people per day worldwide. NSCLC is commonly diagnosed at an advanced stage, meaning individuals diagnosed with the disease typically have a life expectancy of only 8 to 10 months. Avastin is the only first-line treatment to demonstrate improved survival benefits beyond one year in patients with advanced NSCLC.

The approval is based on data from the pivotal US phase III trial (E4599) and the 'Avastin in Lung' (AVAiL) phase III trial. Both studies demonstrate that Avastin is effective for the therapy of patients with NSCLC in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy. The approval is for the use of Avastin at a dose of 7.5 or 15 mg/kg, in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy, for the first-line therapy of patients with unresectable advanced, metastatic or recurrent NSCLC other than predominantly squamous cell histology. The broad label that Avastin has received for the therapy of NSCLC allows the combination of Avastin with any platinum-based chemotherapy regimens (for example, together with taxanes or gemcitabine) at the choice of the physician......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more

August 21, 2007, 4:59 PM CT

Who's Quitting, And Who's Not?

Quitting smoking is not easy, but thousands of New Yorkers succeed at it every year. Who's trying to kick the habit, and who's succeeding? In a new report titled Who's Still Smoking, the Health Department sheds light on both questions. The report, based on a large survey of New York City adults, shows that two thirds of the city's smokers - almost 800,000 adults - tried to quit in the past year, but only 17% of those succeeded. Data from the survey identify emotional distress and binge drinking as possible obstacles to quitting, and finds that less than a fifth of New York City smokers are using nicotine replacement treatment - even though it doubles the chances of success.

New York City has 240,000 fewer smokers today than in 2002, but cessation rates vary widely by borough. Staten Island's smoking rate has held steady since 2002, even as the citywide rate has dropped by 20%. Some 27% of Staten Island adults still smoke, the report shows, in comparison to 17.5% citywide. In comparison, the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens, have all seen declines of more than 20%.

The Health Department today announced a nicotine-replacement giveaway specifically for Staten Islanders. Patches, gum and other medications can double smoker's chances of quitting, but only 19% of smokers tried the patch in the past year, and only 3% tried oral medications like Zyban. The five-week giveaway will take place on Tuesdays through Thursdays beginning today, August 21 and will run through September 20, 2007 during the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. at the Staten Island Ferry's Whitehall Terminal. The Health Department is also planning a targeted anti-tobacco media campaign and a qualitative study to determine why smoking is so widespread and persistent on Staten Island......... Posted by: Justin234      Read more         Source