Lung Cancer – Cancer In Plain English – Cancer Information

In the treatment of lung cancer does it help to receive chemotherapy after surgery? – YES!

RemwesMedical — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:22:21 +0000

A key factor when it comes to treating lung cancer is that if the lung cancer is found early in its growth, it may be possible to remove it surgically. To remove a lung cancer by surgery is the BEST CHANCE for cure that a patient with lung cancer can have. Unfortunately, there are many patients in whom the lung cancer returns just a few months after having removed it surgically. Also unfortunately, and more importantly, is the fact that when the lung cancer returns after having removed it surgically, it is then usually incurable. A key question is then: Is there something we can do in order to try to keep the lung cancer from coming back after having removed it surgically? The answer is yes!
In a recent set of articles and an editorial in the January 1, 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Doctors at the Cross Cancer Institute in Alberta, Canada have shown that it helps to receive chemotherapy after the surgery is performed to remove the lung cancer. They have shown that by giving chemotherapy following surgery, the chemotherapy helps to keep the cancer from returning. The act of giving chemotherapy following surgery is what is known as ADJUVANT chemotherapy.
These doctors have shown that if a lung cancer is found early (at least stages II and III) and is able to be removed surgically, if the person then receives chemotherapy with a chemotherapy medication known as Cisplatin accompanied by another chemotherapy medicine known as Vinorelbine (also called Navelbine), the person who receives chemotherapy this way after surgery, will have a significantly lower risk of having the cancer return compared to a person only had surgery to remove the cancer and did not receive any chemotherapy following the surgery.
These doctors at the Cross Cancer Institute in Canada and in an accompanying editorial written by Dr. Jean-Yves Douillard of the Centre Rene Gauducheau for Medical Oncology in St Herblain, France, have noted that even after following these patients for over 9 years after their surgery and/or chemotherapy, the patients who received surgery AND THEN chemotherapy lived longer and had less chances for their cancers to return compared with patients who received ONLY surgery and DID NOT receive chemotherapy after their surgery.
Thus, in conclusion, these studies show that if one has surgery to remove a lung cancer that has been found early, it is important and it makes perfect sense to ask one’s doctor about the possibility of receiving chemotherapy after the surgery in order to do all that is possible to keep the cancer from coming back. All of these concepts and more are covered in very easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on the www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com web site.

Early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer

RemwesMedical — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:45:31 +0000

There is a new test being developed which promises to help doctors find lung cancers at an early point in the growth of the cancer. If this test indeed is as successful as it promises to be, this could be an enormous breakthrough in the care and treatment of lung cancer. The key with lung cancer is to be able to find it as early as possible in order to remove it surgically. For years, doctors have been trying to find ways to determine as early as possible if someone has lung cancer in order to be able to take that person to surgery as soon and as early as possible and thereby save his or her life.
Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine of the University of California at Los Angeles system have identified a group of 40 proteins that, if found in the blood of someone suspected of having lung cancer, may indeed be able to predict that he or she may or may not have lung cancer.
The researchers tested for this group of 40 proteins in patients who were found to have a “spot” on their x-ray and who were, as a result, in danger of possibly having lung cancer. Their results showed that of the patients who did indeed have lung cancer, the 40 protein group predicted that they would have lung cancer 88% of the time. Equally important, of the patients who did not have lung cancer, the group of 40 proteins predicted that they would not have lung cancer almost 80% of the time.
These are as yet very early findings and will need to be repeated and proven over and over again before this test can become available for all to use, but the key is that if indeed this test proves to be as useful as these early results suggest, this could be a great new weapon in the fight against lung cancer. If this test proves to be as effective as it now seems, we may soon be able to do a chest x ray on someone and if the chest x ray shows a “spot” in the lungs, we can then draw blood for these 40 proteins. If the test for these 40 proteins is positive, this would then give us a strong reason to try to remove the spot in the lung surgically. If the test for the 40 proteins is negative, this would give us a reason why to perhaps not do surgery at that time and just keep an eye on the spot in the lungs to see if it grows over time. These and many other concepts about lung cancer are covered in clear and easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on the web site www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

Vadimezan: Promising new drug for Lung Cancer

RemwesMedical — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:56:58 +0000

There is a new chemotherapy agent for the treatment of Lung Cancer which appears to be very promising. This new agent, which is known as either Vadimezan or by the experimental name of ASA404, is still in the experimental / testing stages of development; however the early results of studies with this new drug are very encouraging.
Lung cancer is a frequent form of cancer in the world. Thousands of people develop and, unfortunately, will pass away from Lung Cancer yearly. Although we have made many great steps forward in the fight against this difficult disease, new forms of therapy are needed in order to better prolong life and hopefully someday be able to rid patients of this cancer altogether.
A recent breakthrough in the treatment of cancer is a medication known as Bevacizumab (also known as Avastin, made by the pharmaceutical company Genentech) which is able to block the ability of tumors to make new blood vessels to feed themselves. A key factor in the development of cancers is that as they grow, they will outgrow their blood supply unless they are able to make more blood vessels which will then bring them increased nourishing blood supplies. Well, what Bevacizumab (or Avastin) does, is to block the cell signal that cancers send out to try to make more blood vessels. In so doing, the cancer will thus starve as it grows since it will thus outgrow its blood supply.
But what about cancers that have already made their extra blood supplies? How can we kill the extra blood supplies that have already been created by the cancer? Well this is what this new medicine, known as either Vadimezan or ASA404 precisely tries to do. Rather than stop the cancer from making new blood vessels in order to increase its blood supply, what Vademizan tries to do is to stop blood supplies that have already been established by the tumor in order to feed itself.
Early studies with this new medication have shown that patients treated with this new medication (Vadimezan) plus standard chemotherapy lived longer than those who were treated only with standard chemotherapy. Also, and importantly, it has been shown that this new medicine did not make people ill. In other words, the toxicity with this new agent was not severe. There were no reported episodes of bleeding or coughing up blood or other severe side effects observed with Vademizan in the early studies performed at the University of Auckland. This is an exciting and very promising new treatment for Lung Cancer which will hopefully soon be available. These concepts and many more are discussed in easy to understand language and with abundant detail in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on the web site www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

Lung Cancer Diagnosis

RemwesMedical — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:56:31 +0000

The diagnosis of lung cancer is something that brings much anxiety and fear to the person as well as to the family members of the person. For years people have tried to see if perhaps a screening techniques could be found that would allow for the earlier diagnosis of lung cancer, but these efforts have failed to show a clear benefit. The desire, of course, is to try to find a lung cancer as early as possible in order to try as best to remove it surgically and thereby cure the person with the lung cancer.
Since screening techiques have not proven to be of benefit, we can then turn our attention to things that a person may exhibit which may give us a clue about the possibility that he or she may have lung cancer.
We need to keep in mind that the following list of possible findings or symptoms are much more important if the person who has these findings also has a history of having smoked cigarettes for many years. The list of findings are as follows:
1. PERSISTENT COUGH. A dry, hacking, persistent cough with little or no sputum production in a person who has smoked for many years is an important clue to the possibility that that person may have lung cancer.
2. UNEXPLAINED WEIGHT LOSS. If someone is losing weight without trying. If he or she feels that they just “can’t seem to keep the weight on”, this is an important clue for the possibility of lung cancer. Of course, this clue is made more significant if the person who has the unexplained weight loss has been a smoker for years.
3. COUGH WITH THE PRODUCTION OF BLOODY SPUTUM. If someone has a cough that produces blood sometimes (or most of the time), this is an important clue to the possibility that that person may have lung cancer. Of course there are other things that can produce a cough with bloody sputum, but we should as well keep in mind lung cancer in someone who develops this finding.
4. CHEST PAIN. Although we always think of heart problems when someone has chest pain, we need to keep in mind that it is possible to have chest pain from a lung cancer that is growing in the chest.
All of the concepts and clues that we have reviewed above and more are covered in calm, easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

Stage 4 Lung Cancer

RemwesMedical — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:23:21 +0000

Stage 4 Lung Cancer is lung cancer that has spread beyond the initial area in the lung where the cancer started to a distant area such as the opposite lung or the bones or the brain or the liver. Lung Cancer is divided into two different types of lung cancer.Those two types of lung cancer are Non Small Cell Lung Cancer and Small Cell Lung Cancer. NON Small Cell Lung Cancer is the one that is staged as Stage I, II, III or IV. The other form of lung cancer, the one known as SMALL Cell Lung Cancer is only staged only as either “Limited Stage” or “Advanced Stage”.
Thus, whenever someone states that a lung cancer is “Stage 4”, we know that they must be speaking about Non Small Cell Lung Cancer since Small Cell Lung Cancer is not staged with numbers. Small Cell Lung Cancer is staged only with those two categories mentioned earlier, “Limited” or “Advanced”.
The reason why Small Cell Lung Cancer is staged only in those two categories is because Small Cell Lung Cancer is felt to be so aggressive (it is more aggressive than Non Small Cell Lung Cancer) that surgery is not possible when it is first discovered. Therefore, it is not necessary to stage Small Cell Lung Cancers precisely with numbers. All that is needed in the staging of Small Cell Lung Cancer is to know if the disease is “Limited” or “Extensive” when it is found.
Non Small Cell Lung Cancer, on the other hand, does have the ability to be removed with surgery when it is first discovered, if it is found early enough. As such, the stages of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer are divided into Stage I, II, III or IV in an effort to know as carefully as possible if surgery is a possibility. Stage IV Non Small Cell Lung Cancer, however, is cancer that has already spread from the lungs where it started to a distant organ or a distant site far from the original location where the lung cancer started. As such, surgery is not possible for Stage IV Lung Cancer. The treatments that are possible for Stage IV Lung Cancer are chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
All of these concepts and many more are covered carefully and in very easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com.

Lung Cancer Staging

RemwesMedical — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:20:53 +0000

When a lung cancer is found, one of the most important and life-saving treatments available is the possibility of surgically removing the cancer. Unfortunately, this is not always possible since many times, the cancer has spread too far by the time it has been found. A system has been created which allows doctors to know if the person with lung cancer is able to undergo surgery. This system is one whereby lung cancers are classified into stages when they are first found. These stages, in turn, tell the cancer specialist and the cancer surgeon if the person with cancer is able to have surgery or not.
Lung Cancers are of two basic types. Those two types are Non – Small Cell Lung Cancer and Small Cell Lung Cancer. Each of these two different types of lung cancer have different staging systems.
NON SMALL CELL LUNG CANCERS. Non – small cell lung cancers are staged as stage I through stage IV, with stage I being the best and stage IV being the worst. Each of these stages, in turn can be subclassified into an either “A” or a “B”. Thus, it is possible to have a Stage I “A” and a stage I “B” depending on how much cancer is found. Accordingly, it is possible to have a stage II “A” or a stage II “B”, stage III “A” or stage III “B” and so forth and so on.
The general agreement among cancer specialist physicians worldwide is that when a non – small cell lung cancer is found from a stage I through a stage III “A” surgery is still a possibility, but if the cancer is felt to be a stage III “B” or greater, surgery is then felt to not be able to be performed as the cancer is too far advanced by stage III “B” and beyond in order to perform surgery.
The second type of lung cancer, the type known as Small Cell Lung Cancers is much more aggressive than Non – Small Cell Lung Cancers. Surgery is felt to not be possible for Small Cell Lung Cancers – regardless of the stage in which they are found. As a result of this, Small Cell Lung Cancers are staged not as stage I, II, III or IV as Non – Small Cell Lung Cancers are, Small Cell Lung Cancers are only staged as “Limited” or “Extensive” stage. Thus, if your doctor states that the cancer is “stage II” or “stage III”, you will know that he or she is referring to a Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (which is the less aggressive type of lung cancer), since Small Cell Lung Cancers are not staged with numbers.
All of these principles are covered in excellent detail and in easy to understand language on the Lung Cancer audio CD that is available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com web site.