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

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.

Metastatic Lung Cancer – Cancer In Plain English – Cancer Information

Vadimezan: Promising new drug for Lung Cancer

Stage 4 Lung Cancer