Jump to full article: MedPage Today, 2009-08-06
Author: Ed Susman, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today
Intro: SAN FRANCISCO -- Treating asymptomatic ex-smokers with oral iloprost can mitigate the changes that lead to non-small cell lung cancer and other diseases, researchers suggested here.
"Former smokers who received iloprost showed a statistically significant improvement in histologic measurements of lung tissue after six months of treatment," said Robert Keith, MD, of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver.
"Smokers did not exhibit any improvement," Keith told attendees at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's world conference.
Animal studies have indicated that prostacyclin supplementation prevented development of lung cancer. With those studies as background, Keith and his colleagues enrolled patients in a multicenter, double-blind, placebo- controlled, phase II trial of iloprost in patients at increased risk for lung cancer. . . .
Action Points
* Explain to interested patients that the treatment described in this trial is not presently available in the U.S.
* Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
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