April 13, 2008 - New mouth test could detect lung cancer
Yahoo! News - Damage to cells lining the mouth can predict similar damage in the lungs that eventually leads to lung cancer in smokers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. They hope it may be possible to some day swab the mouths of smokers to predict who is developing lung cancer -- saving painful and dangerous biopsies of the lung.
The process may also lead to tests that will predict other cancers, said Dr. Li Mao, an expert in head, neck and lung cancer at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "Our study opens the door to enhancing our ability to predict who has higher probability of getting tobacco-related cancers," Mao said in a statement. "Not only lung cancer, but pancreatic, bladder and head and neck cancers, which also are associated with tobacco use."
....They looked at two genes known to help prevent the development of cancer -- p16 and FHIT. "There is substantial damage (to the two genes) long before there is cancer," Mao said........The p16 gene was shut down via a process called methylation in the lungs of 23 percent of the volunteers, while FHIT was affected in 17 percent. In the mouth, p16 was silenced in 19 percent of the smokers and FHIT in 15 percent of them.
For the full story go to: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080413/hl_nm/cancer_lung_mouth_dc
March 28, 2008 - Researcher develops new method for cancer screening
Newswise — Ongoing research at Missouri University of Science and Technology has uncovered a new method for the early detection of cancer with the potential to save millions of lives.
Dr. Yinfa Ma, Curators’ Teaching Professor of chemistry at Missouri S&T, has developed a non-invasive instrument for pre-cancer screening that not only detects cancer in the body, but is capable of predicting the cancer’s type and severity using a group of biomarkers.
“Cancer is the second-highest cause of death among all diseases,” Ma says. “Early diagnosis of cancer is crucial, but not many people want to go to the hospital to undergo costly, invasive cancer screening.”
Ma’s research builds on existing knowledge of pteridines, compounds found within the body that serve as important cofactors to regulate the metabolism of cells. Ma found that six pteridine derivatives can be detected in urine samples, and that levels of some pteridines increase significantly if there is a tumor inside the body. Most importantly, Ma discovered that one molecule, called oncopterin, exists only in the urine of cancer patients, but not in healthy human subjects. Further testing for oncopterin, using different techniques, still is required.
Ma has developed a prototype of an instrument, called a P-scan, that can be used to screen urine for oncopterine and the six other pteridine bio markers. The oncopterin level in urine can be used to determine whether cancer is going to develop, and varying levels of the six pteridines can actually provide a “fingerprint” of the type of cancer.
Ma is collaborating with Dr. Clay M. Anderson, director of clinical services at the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia, Mo. Anderson and his staff are providing confirmed patient and control samples from lung cancer patients, with the eventual goal of conducting systematic studies on each individual type of cancer.
Ma’s long-term goal is to develop the P-scan for commercial use in clinical laboratories for non-invasive early cancer screening.
“I won’t give up,” Ma says. “I will continue to work on this project until we have succeeded and can market the instrument to save people’s lives.”
Ma’s research is funded by the University of Missouri Research Board and the Missouri S&T chemistry department. Recently, he received a $1,000 faculty award from Missouri S&T’s John W. Claypool Fund for Medical Research.
March 6, 2008 - Cancer Funding: Does It Add Up? - Tara Parker-Hope, New York Times online
Should cancer spending be focused on the most common cancers? Or the most deadly cancers?
That’s the dilemma for the cancer research community as it struggles to divvy up limited funds. After news yesterday that actor Patrick Swayze had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, several readers questioned the nation’s cancer funding priorities. I decided to look at the numbers.
The National Cancer Institute has proposed a $6 billion budget in the war on cancer, allocating some funds for general cancer research and some for studies of specific cancers. But a review of the N.C.I.’s 2006 funding for five of the biggest cancers showed a wide disparity in the amounts of money spent relative to each cancer death and each new case of cancer. The data offer only a partial snapshot of public cancer spending in this country, as other government offices, such as the U.S. Department of Defense, also fund breast and prostate cancer research.
The big loser in the cancer funding race is lung cancer. It is the biggest cancer killer in the country, yet on a per-death basis receives the least N.C.I. funding among major cancers. In 2006, the N.C.I. spent $1,518 for each new case of lung cancer and $1,630 for each lung cancer death, according to data from the institute and the American Cancer Society. Among the big cancers, breast cancer receives the most funding per new case, $2,596 — and by far the most money relative to each death, $13,452. For the full story click here.
February 22, 2008 - Study shows genes' role in lung cancer - Newsday
Government scientists have shown in intimate detail which genes play a role in lung cancer development and survival, and more precisely how smoking can have an impact decades after the habit is kicked.
Dr. Maria Teresa Landi, a scientist in the National Cancer Institute's division of epidemiology and genetics, examined the spiraling lengths of DNA in lung cells to determine exactly how smoking causes genes to go awry."We looked at tissue of current heavy smokers, people who had quit and people who were never smokers," Landi said. "When you quit smoking, the risk decreases dramatically, but it never goes back to the risk of a never-smoker." She and her colleagues found that smoking leads to alterations in cell division and deregulation of the immune response. The study provides a broader picture of the mechanisms involved in DNA alterations, which until now, had largely remained incomplete, experts say.
Dr. Theodore Gabig, chief of hematology and oncology at Stony Brook University Medical Center, said cigarette smoking causes lung cancer because dozens of toxins bombard the integrity of DNA. The new research, he added, corroborates what doctors have seen in large population studies of smokers, quitters and nonsmokers.
For the full story, click here.
February 14, 2008 - New Clinical Study for Early Eetection of Lung Cancer in Veterans
The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) and Biomoda, Inc. have partnered with the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services (DVS) to conduct a $350,000 clinical study using proprietary testing technology for detection of early lung cancer in the state's veterans. For the full story, click here.
February 7, 2008 - Bon Jovi kicks off lung cancer concert series - Reuters
New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi will kick off the Stand Up For A Cure 2008 Concert Series next week with a show in New York to help raise funds for lung cancer research, organizers said on Thursday.The Feb 12 concert will be dedicated to the memory of Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora's late father, who received care at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a beneficiary of funds to be raised during the year-long concert series.
The series will also feature performances by comedian Jerry Seinfeld, Brian Wilson, composer of many of the Beach Boys' hits, and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. Additional concerts are expected to be announced shortly, organizers said. For the full story, click here.
February 6, 2008 - CBS 5 (KPIX) news coverage on the Beverly Fund's fight against lung cancer
Tracy Sestili, founder and CEO of the Beverly Fund talks about what she is doing in the fight against lung cancer.
For CBS 5 news video as interviewed by Kate Kelly
For CBS 5 story reported by Kate Kelly on Feb 6, 2008
For San Francisco Chronicle story reported by Shelah Moody on Feb 3, 2008
February 6, 2008 - Resisting Lung Cancer Recurrence: Vaccine Booster Gives Persistent Immune Reponse - Science Daily
In a clinical study a team headed by the international Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) has shown that a vaccine against a protein found in cancer cells produces an immune response that can be boosted and strengthened with additional vaccine shots. Patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were treated with this investigational agent, also known as an Antigen-Specific Cancer Immunotherapeutic (ASCI), in another clinical study conducted by GlaxoSmithKline. The results showed a reduction in risk of cancer recurrence in these patients, a finding that prompted GlaxoSmithKline to initiate the largest ever clinical trial in lung cancer (MAGRIT study). For the full story, click here.
February 4, 2008 - Biomarkers Found That Predict Lung Cancer Patient Response To Therapy - Science Daily
Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center have discovered biomarkers that predict which patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer will respond to a combination treatment of the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex and the growth factor receptor blocker Tarceva. The findings may help oncologists personalize treatment, prescribing drugs they know patients will respond to and sparing them from therapies that won't work. For the full story, click here.
Feb 3, 2008 - Beverly Fund fights back against lung cancer - San Francisco ChronicleAfter her mother died of lung cancer in 2006, Tracy Sestili channeled her grief into creating the Beverly Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about the disease.
"You don't have to be a smoker to get lung cancer," she said. There are other environmental links, such as exposure to asbestos and secondhand smoke. But Sestili said there can be a stigma attached to lung cancer of having brought it upon oneself because it is most frequently caused by cigarette smoking. "We're here to change that and put a voice on lung cancer and give it the attention that it deserves," Sestili said. "A lot of people think that lung cancer is a shameful disease. It's not really talked about a lot. One of our goals is to raise awareness and educate people on the risks and causes as well as early detection methods such as genome testing and spiral CT scans," which show promise as an early screening tool.with the words: Remember November.
For the full story, click here.
Dec. 3, 2007 - CEO of The Beverly Fund, Tracy Sestili, receives the AT&T Spotlight Community Hero Award
Energy 92.7FM of the San Francisco Bay Area has teamed up with AT&T to support and honor those individuals in the Bay Area who are raising the bar in the community. They support community based programs and organizations that address educational, cultural, and social issues affecting the quality of life in our communities. This week the AT&T Spotlight is on Tracy Sestili, CEO and founder of The Beverly Fund, a grassroots nonprofit organization for lung cancer. The Beverly Fund is dedicated to being your lung cancer resource. Whether you've been recently diagnosed, know someone who has been affected by the disease or just want to help out, The Beverly Fund can help you. Visit www.beverlyfund.org for more information on how you can help.
Fall 2007- adapted from ASCO meeting summer 2007 (American Society of Clinical Oncology)
Prophylactic Cranial Irradition (PCI) for extensive small cell lung cancer (SCLC) significantly reduces the risk of symptomatic brain metastases, and significantly improves both disease-free and overall survival in patiens with extensive disease of SCLC. It was recommended that PCI be offered to extensive stage SCLC patients who responded well to chemotherapy.
Limited stage SCLC, where the cancer is confined to one side of the chest, accounts for about 1/3 of SCLC cases. Extensive stage is when it has spread to other areas of the body. A randomized controlled clinical trial amongst extensive stage SCLC patients who responded to chemotherapy but did not have any known brain metastases were randomized to receive PCI or not. Astoundingly, not only did it prevent the brain mestastases, it also increased the 1 year survival rate of these patients by about 14%.
For the abstract and more on this topic, go to ASCO.
November 8, 2007: FDA Issues New Warning for Anemia Drugs - Associated Press
WASHINGTON—The Food and Drug Administration called on physicians Thursday to warn cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy that certain anti-anemia drugs led to tumor growth and decreased survival in some patients. At issue are drugs sold under the brand names Procrit, Epogen and Aranesp. These drugs are genetically engineered versions of a natural protein that increases the number of red blood cells. The drugs generated $10 billion in sales last year.
The FDA said on Thursday it approved several labeling changes for the drugs, which are commonly referred to as ESAs. For patients with cancer, the new label emphasizes that the drugs caused tumor growth and shortened survival in patients with advanced breast, head and neck, lymphoid and non-small cell lung cancer.
The patients at greater risk for the adverse effects received a dose that attempted to achieve a hemoglobin level of 12 grams per deciliter or greater. But the new boxed warning emphasizes that no clinical data is available that would exclude similar risks for patients getting smaller doses, FDA officials stressed.
The agency had approved new labels for the medicines in March. But the newest warning emphasizes the types of cancers affected, and it notes that that the medicines did not improve the overall quality of life for patients.
For the full story, click here.
November 8, 2007: Study: Ship pollution causes 60,000 premature deaths due to cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer - American Shipper + Shippers Newswire
A new study said particulate matter emissions related to the shipping industry might be responsible for as many as 60,000 premature deaths due to cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer.
The study, published this week in the American Chemical Society's journal, Environmental Science and Technology, said most of those deaths occur near coastlines in Europe, East Asia and South Asia.
The authors add that, "under current regulation and with the expected growth in shipping activity, we estimate that annual mortalities could increase by 40 percent by 2012."
The study correlates the global distribution of particulate matter -- black carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and organic particles -- released from ships' smokestacks with heart disease and lung cancer mortalities in adults.
The journal's Web site notes that the report was released as a subcommittee of the International Maritime Organization met in London Wednesday to continue discussions of sulfate emissions controls and other issues.
The study was done by a team led by James Corbett of the University of Delaware and James Winebrake of the Rochester Institute of Technology.
According to the journal, the study provides "some of the first estimates of premature mortality (PM) from exposure to particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfate in global ship emissions."
The paper said, "an important PM-related health effect is premature mortality; in particular, increases in concentrations of PM with aerodynamic diameters of 2.5 mm or less."
It says these small PM 2.5 particles "have been closely associated with increases in cardiopulmonary and lung cancer mortalities in exposed populations," with one group of researchers suggesting they result in 800,000 deaths per year, or about 1.2 percent of global premature mortalities each year.
For the full story, click here.
Oct 31, 2007: Vitamin A Derivative Associated With Reduced Growth In Some Lung Cells - Science Daily
Treatment with a derivative of vitamin A called retinoic acid was associated with reduced lung cell growth in a group of former heavy smokers, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Former smokers remain at elevated risk for lung cancer. According to one hypothesis, lung cells that were damaged during years of smoking may continue to grow and evolve into cancer even after that person has quit smoking. Previous studies have suggested that retinoids, a class of drugs related to vitamin A, may be effective for preventing lung cancer in former smokers. Retinoids have also been shown to slow the growth of cancer cells in laboratory experiments.
Investigators at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston previously conducted a double-blind lung cancer prevention trial among 225 former heavy smokers. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive a 3-month treatment of 13-cis-retinoic acid and vitamin E, or 9-cis-retinoic acid, or a placebo. Walter Hittelman, Ph.D., and colleagues later examined biopsy samples of participants' lung tissue taken before and after treatment, then measured the proliferation of the cells using a biomarker called Ki-67.
Both treatments reduced cell proliferation in one layer of the lung cells (the parabasal layer), but not the other (the basal layer), which surprised the researchers.
For the full story, click here.
Oct 31, 2007: Researchers Find Novel Mechanism To Predict Survival In Older Women With Early Stage Lung Cancer - AScribe Newswire
LOS ANGELES -- A novel mechanism to predict survival in older women with early stage lung cancer has been uncovered by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, a discovery that may have significant implications for new treatment approaches.
For the first time, UCLA researchers linked higher levels of aromatase, an enzyme that naturally makes estrogen from another hormone called androgen, to more aggressive disease and lower survival rates in women over 65 with Stage I or II lung cancer. The discovery not only gives physicians a possible new tool to predict survival, it also may provide a target for therapy using aromatase inhibitors, already approved for the treatment of breast cancer.
The study, conducted as part of the Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in lung cancer at UCLA, appears in the Nov. 1, 2007 issue of Cancer Research.
For the full story, click here.
Oct 30, 2007: Lung Cancer Radiation Scarring Studied - United Press International
NEW YORK -- A U.S. radiological study suggests preventing lung scarring during radiation therapy for lung cancer might extend patients' lives.
Researchers at New York University Medical Center have found that using a special type of drug called a pharmaceutical monoclonal antibody to prevent a serious side effect of radiation therapy for lung cancer patients -- pulmonary fibrosis, or scarring of the lungs -- extends patients' lives and improves their quality of life.
"The toxicity of pulmonary fibrosis limits the amount of the radiation dose that can be safely given to patients," said Dr. Simon Cheng, author of the study. "These study results may lead to more effective radiation therapies for advanced lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the (United States)."
More than 50 percent of patients receiving radiation therapy for advanced lung cancer develop radiation-induced lung fibrosis, the scientists said.
For the full story, click here.
Oct 23, 2007: Autoantibodies to Cancer Associated Antigens May Help Detect Early Lung Cancer - CancerConsultants.com
Researchers from the UK and Germany have reported that an autoantibody response to one or more tumor associated antigens could provide a specific test for the detection of early lung cancer. The details of this study appeared in an early on-line publication in Thorax on October 11, 2007.
Researchers from England and Germany recently conducted a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a blood test in detecting lung cancer. This trial included plasma from 50 patients who were healthy at the time of the initiation of the trial; 82 patients who had been diagnosed with non–small cell lung cancer; and 22 patients who had been diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. Researchers evaluated levels of seven different autoantibodies. These antibodies were directed at known cancer related antigens including: p53, c-myc, HER2, NY-ESO-1, CAGE, MUC1, and GBU4-5.
- Levels of at least one of the seven tested antibodies were raised in 76% of all patients with lung cancer compared with only 8% of healthy individuals.
Levels of antibodies were elevated in 89% of patients with lung cancer that had not spread to nearby lymph nodes (node-negative).
Of the cases in which antibodies levels were raised, 92% correctly identified cancer (specificity).
The researchers concluded that testing for levels of specific antibodies in the plasma of patients “is non-invasive, [and] cost effective relative to imaging tests, carries no side effects and is acceptable to the vast majority of patients." Further research is necessary to confirm these findings.
For the entire article, click here.
Oct 22, 2007: New Gene Associated with lung cancer - Science Daily
The first research to show the involvement of a gene known as Dmp1 in human lung cancer will hopefully lead to an increased understanding on what goes wrong at the cellular level to cause the disease, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine reporting in Cancer Cell...."Lung cancer is one of the most lethal types of cancer and understanding more about its cause could be a first step to developing new treatments," said senior scientist Kazushi Inoue, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of pathology.
Earlier studies in mice found that the gene is involved in activating tumor suppressors known as p53 and Arf. The researchers believe that when the Dmp1 gene isn't functional, these tumor suppressors are not available to stop tumor growth by killing cancer cells.
For the full story, click here.
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