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• Lung cancer on the rise among Dutch women 

The number of women suffering from lung cancer is expected to more than double in the coming decade.

The Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) expects about 8,500 women will be suffering from the disease in 2020, compared to close to 4,000 in 2007.

A spokesperson for the organisation says: "When women smoke just as much as men, they are more likely to get lung cancer. This is probably related to their hormonal system."

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Lung Cancer Becomes an Epidemic in Greece  

In spite of stricter laws banning smoking in public places, including cafes, bars and nightclubs, that have been enforced since 2010, deaths due to lung cancer in Greece show no sign of abating, and actually rose in 2011, scientists reported.

The figures showed that there were still 7,000 deaths related to lung cancer every year in Greece, with scientists noting that the disease has become a public health problem of epidemic proportions.

The number of incidents treated by cancer clinics in public hospitals has increased over the last year - an increase attributed to both a rise in the number of incidents and the economic crisis that sends people that would have otherwise sought private health care to the public health system.

Cases at the 'Sotiria' Hospital cancer clinic have increased by 24-30 percent as a result, while lung cancer remains the top cause of death among both men and women, surpassing breast cancer for the latter.

The figures were presented during a press conference to announce the 2nd International Conference on Lung Cancer "From the Laboratory to Clinical Practice" that will be held in Athens on February 3-4.

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New lung cancer assay is better than all existing methods at predicting survival after surgery for early disease 

In patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC: comprising 80% of all lung cancers), long-term survival outcomes can be poor even for those who have had surgery at an apparently early stage of disease (stages I and II)***. This is mainly because in some of these patients, the disease has spread (metastasised), but the metastases are undetectable. Research on a new lung cancer assay, published Online First by The Lancet, shows it is possible to more accurately predict which patients will be cured by surgery and those who may die within five years of the operation. The study is by Dr Michael J Mann and Professor David M Jablons, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Thoracic Surgery Division, San Francisco, CA, USA, and colleagues.

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Test Might Predict Risk of Lung Cancer's Return 

A new industry-funded study suggests that a molecular test can provide insight into whether patients are at high risk of a relapse after surgical treatment for a form of lung cancer.

The test, which is currently available, could help doctors decide whether the patients should undergo chemotherapy to prevent the cancer from returning.

There are caveats: The test is expensive, and researchers don't yet know whether patients determined to be at high risk will live longer if they undergo chemotherapy.

Still, "this may be one of the very first examples of where we understood enough about the molecular biology of a cancer to truly personalize the treatment of patients and actually improve the cure rate for that cancer," said study co-author Dr. Michael Mann, an associate professor of surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. . . .

The research was funded by the firm that developed the molecular test, and several of the study authors serve as consultants to the firm.

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Teen Mom 2 Leah Messer, Jenelle Evans May Give Their Kids Lung Cancer 

Teen Mom 2 stars Leah Messer and Jenelle Evans need to quit smoking not just for their own health risks, but also for the damage they may be causing their children. HollywoodLife.com spoke to a group of pediatricians, and they all agree: Secondhand smoke may cause their 2-year-olds Jace, Aliannah and Aleeah to get lung cancer.

Dr. Carl Ivey, a retired pediatrician who practiced in Chicago and Indiana for over 20 years, agrees. “As long as they’re smoking, they’re being inadequate parents,” he says. “There is a higher risk of lung cancer and lung disease — it’s a proven fact. To avoid secondhand smoke the parent has to smoke outside of the house and not just in another room. If they stay inside the house, the smoke will travel through the air and can harm the child.”

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Smoking, Not HIV, Causes Higher Lung Cancer Risk In People With HIV  

Results from a recent Swiss study indicate that the higher risk of developing lung cancer in people with HIV compared to the general population arises from heavy smoking, not HIV infection.

Based on the results, the study authors recommended implementing strategies to reduce smoking, and therefore lung cancer risk, in HIV-positive adults.

The study authors also speculated that links between lung cancer and HIV or immune deficiency in previous studies were caused by overrepresentation of people with advanced HIV infections in lung cancer studies or accidental inclusion of cancers known to be caused by infectious diseases, such as Kaposi’s sarcoma of the lung.

According to the study authors, previous research has shown that people with HIV are at about a two- to seven-fold increased risk for lung cancer compared to people without HIV (see related AIDS Beacon news). However, scientists are uncertain whether this higher risk arises from HIV or from lifestyle factors, such as a greater rate of smoking in people with HIV.

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Lung Cancer Alliance Offers Condolences to Paterno Family 

Today, Lung Cancer Alliance (LAC) offers condolences to the family of legendary Penn State University coach Joseph Paterno who died of lung cancer this morning.

His death came just a few weeks after being diagnosed with a late stage, untreatable form of the disease.

Lung Cancer Alliance President Laurie Fenton-Ambrose said: "So many patients have faced this, so many families have been hurt by this disease which is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the world." . . .

"And just as sadly this is the only cancer that continues to be blamed on the patient," she said, pointing out that four out of five new cases are people who never smoked or who had already quit smoking, often decades ago.

"It is time - it is long overdue - that we take a more compassionate and comprehensive approach to this disease, give people at high risk the benefit of CT screening and give priority attention to improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all types of lung cancer," she said.

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A snapshot of smokers after lung and colorectal cancer diagnosis  

CONCLUSIONS:

After diagnosis, a substantial minority of patients with lung and colorectal cancers continued smoking. Patients with lung cancer had higher rates of smoking at diagnosis and after diagnosis; whereas patients with colorectal cancer were less likely to quit smoking after diagnosis. Factors that were associated with continued smoking differed between lung and colorectal cancer patients. Future smoking-cessation efforts should examine differences by cancer type, particularly when comparing cancers for which smoking is a well established risk factor versus cancers for which it is not.

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Many people continue to smoke after being diagnosed with cancer 

A new analysis has found that a substantial number of lung and colorectal cancer patients continue to smoke after being diagnosed. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study provides valuable information on which cancer patients might need help to quit smoking.

When a patient receives a cancer diagnosis, the main focus is to treat the disease. But stopping smoking after a cancer diagnosis is also important because continuing to smoke can negatively affect patients' responses to treatments, their subsequent cancer risk, and, potentially, their survival. Elyse R. Park, PhD, MPH, of the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, led a team that looked to see how many patients quit smoking around the time of a cancer diagnosis, and which smokers were most likely to quit.

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Addiction to nicotine trumps even lung cancer  

Unfortunately, harm reduction approaches have yet to be widely accepted for those addicted to cigarettes. A new study by the American Cancer Society illustrates the depth of this addiction and the difficulty some smokers face even when a diagnosis of cancer makes it imperative that they quit. One woman, a smoker whose cancerous lung was removed, explained in an MSNBC interview the draw of cigarettes despite the litany of cessation methods she tried. We can't help but think that tobacco harm reduction products could have been a great help to this woman, as well as to many people like her.

The new study, published in the journal Cancer, looked at nearly 2,500 lung cancer patients . . .

"Wouldn't it be nice," ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan asks, "if these patients had a spectrum of smokeless products, which are both effective and at least 90 percent less harmful than cigarettes, to choose from?" ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross agrees. "It's absurd that we're recognizing the benefits of harm reduction for IV drug addicts, but we won't acknowledge how much it would help people who can't quit smoking even after a cancer diagnosis."

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Cancer Clinical Trials 

Your search returned 250 studies:

OSI-774 in African American Patients With Advanced and Previously Treated Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Conditions: Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung

1 Location available

Effects of Selected Vegetable and Herb Mix (SV) on Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Conditions: Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

1 Location available

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Lung Cancer: Joe Paterno's Death Is One of Thousands 

Football legend Joe Paterno's death from lung cancer has put a spotlight on the illness, which is the number-one cancer death in the United States, with the death rate higher than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined.

Figures for 2006, the latest year available, show that lung cancer from cigarette smoking kills 135,000 people every year.

It's not known if Paterno, 85, smoked cigarettes. But cigarette smoking is unquestionably the biggest cause of lung cancer. Other causes include environmental factors like second-hand smoke, radon, a family history of lung cancer, air pollution and high-level exposure to carcinogens including coal products and diesel exhaust. Some people, like Christopher Reeve's widow Dana Reeve, get lung cancer for seemingly no reason at all.

According to the National Institutes Of health, the illness is divided into two categories - non small-cell lung cancer and small-cell lung cancer. Small-cell lung cancer spreads more quickly, and non small-cell lung cancer, which is more common, spreads fairly slowly.

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New report tracks cancer trends 

A report released recently by the American Cancer Society indicates that while cancer death rates decreased in men and women between 2004 and 2008, the incidence of several cancers has increased in the past decade.

The report, titled Cancer Statistics 2012, indicates between 2004 and 2008, overall cancer incidence rates declined by 0.6 percent per year in men and were stable in women, while cancer death rates decreased by 1.8 percent per year in men and by 1.6 percent per year in women.

The cancers that are on the rise include cancers of the pancreas, liver, thyroid, and kidney and melanoma of the skin, as well as esophageal adenocarcinoma and certain subsites of oropharyngeal cancer associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, according to the report.

Two of those types of cancers are also on the rise locally, according to Dr. Devaki Siva, a hematologist/oncologist with Marietta Memorial Hospital's Strecker Cancer Center. Cases of esophageal and oropharyngeal cancer-cancer of the head and neck- have increased, she said. The most recent data available indicates in Washington County, the incidence rate for oropharyngeal cancer in men is 16.1, while in women, it is 5.5. The rates are per 100,000, with adjustments having been made because of Washington County only having about 61,000 residents.

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• Lifestyle blamed for 40 percent of cancers  

Forty percent of cancers in women and 45 percent in men could be prevented by a healthier lifestyle, British researchers say.

A Cancer Research UK report found more than 100,000 cancers each year in Britain are caused by four lifestyle factors -- smoking, unhealthy diet, alcohol and being overweight -- and the number rises to around 134,000 a year when 14 lifestyle and environmental factors are taken into account, the Guardian reported.

The research showed that in Britain:

-- Smoking accounts for 23 percent of all cancers in men and 15.6 percent in women. It causes lung cancer as well as bladder, kidney, pancreatic and cervical cancer.

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Lung Cancer Alliance Offers Condolences to Paterno Family 

Today, Lung Cancer Alliance (LAC) offers condolences to the family of legendary Penn State University coach Joseph Paterno who died of lung cancer this morning.

His death came just a few weeks after being diagnosed with a late stage, untreatable form of the disease.

Lung Cancer Alliance President Laurie Fenton-Ambrose said: "So many patients have faced this, so many families have been hurt by this disease which is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the world."

The overall 5-year survival rate for those diagnosed with lung cancer is still only 15%, and less than 4% for those with late stage lung cancer.

"And just as sadly this is the only cancer that continues to be blamed on the patient," she said, pointing out that four out of five new cases are people who never smoked or who had already quit smoking, often decades ago.

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