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Tonight we report on a potential advance in the treatment of lung cancer — a test to see who can benefit from chemotherapy immediately after surgery to remove early stage lung cancer. I say potential advance because this is about a test that is not yet on the market. It requires a large trial to prove its true worth, and that won’t be finished for a few years. You can read an abstract of the actual research.
We chose to publicize this early finding because lung cancer is by far the major cancer killer and treatment advances have lagged far behind other cancers. This is about to change. A screening test that finds cancer at its earliest stages has just completed a 10 year trial. Those results have not been published, but many experts widely expect they will show that former and current smokers can benefit from screening to find early, small cancer that can be removed easily with surgery.
But even when a tiny tumor is removed there is still a big problem. In half of the patients the cancer will still recur, threatening the patients' life. The new test based on an analysis of 2,100 genes distinguished between the tumors that are cured by surgery alone and those that require preventative or so-called adjuvant chemotherapy. The scientists estimate the test has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives a year.
This is the latest discovery in what is called “personalized medicine” –- using tests to individualize therapy so that only those who need the treatment get it while others can be spared the cost and side effects
Read more from Robert Bazell
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Yet another "breakthrough drug"... I suggest you read "Should I Be Tested for Cancer", by Dartmouth doc and researcher, Gilbert Welch. While the notion that catchng a disease early should be a good idea, makes intuitive sense... it ain't necessarily so. What *is* certain, is that it leads to more tests, more treatment, more worry and more expense.
Ron Logan (Sent Aug 21, 2006 12:40:58 PM)
I too have never been so aware of the threat of lung cancer until it struck our family and took my father at a young age.
These new methods should be allowed to be used on cancer patients who other wise would not have any hope. Even with the conventional treatments for lung cancer that basicly do not work. These new methods should be offered to all lung cancer patients!
Patty, Bakersfield California (Sent Aug 10, 2006 7:45:19 PM)
I've never been so aware of the threat of lung cancer as I am now... my daughter's fifth-grade teacher died two days after being diagnosed with it and given 30 days to live. That it is a killer we all knew. That it affected non-smokers like her we are (or at least I am) only just now realizing.
And I'm shocked at the failure to find it earlier -- she had been out sick and seeing doctors off and on all last year. For it not to be found until it was far too late was a shock to all of us.
Charlie in Illinois (Sent Aug 10, 2006 12:59:15 PM)
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