Lung Cancer

MONTREAL-Patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who receive chemotherapy report better symptom control and quality of life than those who opt for supportive care alone, William K. Evans, MD, chief executive officer, Ottawa Regional Cancer Centre, On-tario, said at a symposium on lung cancer organized by the 19th International Congress of Chemotherapy.

The addition of cisplatin (Platinol) and oral etoposide (VePesid)to radiation therapy delays distant metastasis, thus increasing

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa--Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Inc.'s Taxotere (docetaxel) has received approval from the Canadian Health Protection Branch for use as second-line treatment of advanced breast and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The new drug submission was based on clinical trials involving more than 800 patients worldwide.

The use of the anticancer agent vinorelbine (Navelbine) as a radiosensitizerto enhance the effectiveness of radiation treatment is suggested

BALTIMORE--A number of factors can suggest whether a focal pulmonary lesion is malignant or benign, but no single test affords a quick answer, and biopsy is usually necessary to make the diagnosis, said Peter White, Jr., MD, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

ASCO LOS ANGELES--A phase II study of gemcitabine, a novel nucleoside analog, plus cisplatin (Platinol) in patients with stage III or IV non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed an encouraging 42% response rate and 8-month median survival.

ASCO LOS ANGELES--Five studies presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting raise questions as to whether platinum/taxane combinations are better in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) than standard platinum/etoposide (VePesid) regimens, and if so, which platinum and which taxane used in combination are best with respect to efficacy, toxicity, and cost?

PARIS, France--Comparison of two sequential Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) trials has shown that the addition of cisplatin (Platinol) and etoposide (VePesid) to hyperfractionated radiation therapy significantly boosts survival in patients with inoperable non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Ritsuko Komaki, MD, reported at the American Radium Society meeting.

Race does not play a stastically significant role in lung cancer patients'survival, a recent analysis shows. Instead, cigarette use, stage of disease, and other factors appear to be reasons more African-Americans die of lung cancer than their Caucasian

Disadvantaged Americans are far more likely to die of the most treatable form of lung cancer--not because of their health habits, but because they don't receive the proper treatment

The treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer has undergone incremental improvement over the last three decades of investigation. When this incremental history is reviewed, three distinct subdivisions emerge: (1) the minimal-activity era

Dr. Vokes provides information about integrating a new chemotherapeutic agent, vinorelbine (Navelbine), into the current treatment regimens for patients with advanced-stage non-small-cell lung cancer. He reviews the phase II activity of

Meta-analyses of randomized clinical studies comparing combination chemotherapy versus "best supportive care" for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer have revealed a small, but statistically significant survival

Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas reported that alterations in the genes of a section of chromosome 3p may reveal the earliest stages of lung cancer.

Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas reported that alterations in the genes of a section of chromosome 3p may reveal the earliest stages of lung cancer

PARIS, France--Overexpression of growth factor receptors correlates with a poor prognosis in many malignancies, including breast, bladder, and lung cancer, and new evidence suggests that growth factor receptors may be an important target for anticancer therapy, John Mendelsohn, MD, said at the Fifth International Congress on Anti-Cancer Chemotherapy.

If a woman smoked, contracted breast cancer, and was treated with radiation before 1980, her risk of lung cancer has been dramatically increased. Even if she did not smoke, her chances for lung

COLLEGEVILLE, Penn--A patient with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer has become the first to receive an injection of a p53/retrovirus gene therapy into existing tumor cells, Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. and RPR Gencell, a division of Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, have announced.

This excellent, concise review of the status of lung cancer chemoprevention complements a benchmark review of the whole field of chemoprevention by Drs. Benner, Lippman, Hong and colleagues that appeared recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology [1] Careful scrutiny of both these articles yields a number of issues for consideration.

Clinical trials have suggested that retinoid chemoprevention prevents the development of second primary tumors following head and neck or non-small-cell lung cancer. The findings of these initial studies are now being

The lack of effective treatments for advanced cancer has been one of the motivating forces in the field of cancer prevention. Nowhere is this approach more justified than in primary pulmonary neoplasms. In this article, Benner and his M.D. Anderson colleagues review trials investigating the prevention of lung cancer utilizing retinoids and carotenoids.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC--Navelbine (vinorelbine tartrate), a semisynthetic vinca alkaloid, has become the first new treatment to receive FDA approval for inoperable advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in 20 years, Burroughs Wellcome Co., manufacturer of Navelbine, announced at a telephone news conference.

ROCKVILLE, Md--In a surprise move, the FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee failed to recommend approval of Taxotere (docetaxel, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer) for commercial use.

Survival and local control rates for limited stage small-cell lung cancer patients treated with either once-daily or twice-daily thoracic radiation plus cisplatin (Platinol) and etoposide (VePesid) are substantially better than with previously reported

Preliminary clinical results with gemcitabine, an investigational difluoronucleoside, were presented during scientific sessions organized by the 7th World Conference on Lung Cancer, which was held in Colorado Springs last year. The agent produced

BETHESDA, Md--The FDA has approved Burroughs Wellcome's Navelbine (vinorelbine tartrate) for the first-line treatment of ambulatory patients with unresectable, advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

ROCKVILLE, Md--To the surprise of many, the FDA Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee recommended that Taxotere (docetaxel, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer) not be approved for marketing at this time. The company was seeking approval of the drug for use in locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer when previous therapy with an anthracycline has failed, and in locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy.