Something In the Air

When a Smoker Gets Lung Cancer, Sympathy Is Stained With Blame

By: Petula Dvorak Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 16, 2008

It took me a while to figure out why my dad refused the free blanket in the cancer ward.
The lady from the Cancer Society came into his room wheeling a cart stacked with colorful blankets. Crocheted by volunteers, they offered homespun comfort to folks recovering from surgeries that had cut out tumors, lesions, slabs of skin, pieces of colon, entire breasts or, in my father's case, a lobe of his left lung.
"No, not for me," said my father, a rugged brick mason who kicked his 45-year, pack-a-day smoking habit two months before the surgery.
I took one of the blankets for him, but for days it lay untouched on the chair in his hospital room. "That's for the other people," he said, pointing to rooms where cancer battles were also being fought.
My answer about his blanket aversion came a couple of days later. The stitches were bothering him, he was sick of the hospital food, but most of all, the 63-year-old fly fisherman who bicycles to work was furious at being debilitated. He offered the entire ordeal's one bit of analysis in his thick Eastern European accent.
"All these years of smoking. I had all that pleasure," he said. "Now, I pay."
He had been beating himself up for having lung cancer. And the rest of us in the family, though we didn't want to admit it, weren't exactly showering him with forgiveness.
It's a common syndrome for this particular type of cancer, which is consistently marginalized, stigmatized, under-funded and under-studied, even though it kills more people in the United States every year than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance, an advocacy group in Washington.
It is becoming clear to patient advocates that the mental health of lung cancer patients -- who rarely get the positive reinforcement, unfettered support and kindness of society -- is also worth defending.
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In this issue, we celebrate ways we are working to keep our efforts to fund Lung Cancer research and save more lives, alive and thriving, despite tough times. As we prepare to enter a new year, we look forward to our ongoing lifesaving efforts and we look back with gratitude on the last almost three years and the tremendous strides we have made.
Since we began, and because of you, we have been able to make considerable contributions to early detection, Lung Cancer research specific to patients, education to countless patients for better treatment paths, a plan for an unprecedented prevention and cessation program targeted at adolescents, and last but not least...building the framework for the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute which will increase that unforgivable survival rate of 15.5%.Thank you for your generosity.
Happy holidays and cheers to what lies ahead…
With Love,Bonnie J. Addario

Iressa Proves Just As Effective As Chemotherapy For Lung Cancer

ScienceDaily (Dec. 8, 2008) — Gefitinib, also known as Iressa, the once-promising targeted therapy for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, has proven as effective as chemotherapy as a second-line therapy for the disease with far fewer side effects, according to an international Phase III clinical trial, led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
However, in contrast to earlier Iressa findings, the study showed that there was no additional survival benefit for patients who expressed an elevated level of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation.
The Iressa in Non-small cell lung cancer Trial Evaluating REsponse and Survival versus Taxotere (INTERST) study, published today in The Lancet, represents a paradigm shift for the treatment of the disease, according to lead author Edward S. Kim, M.D., assistant professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology. It marks the first time in lung cancer that an oral pill has proven as effective as chemotherapy in a head-to-head trial.
"This is the largest study in lung cancer comparing an oral biologic therapy to chemotherapy, and shows, for the first time, that an oral biologic therapy is just as effective as chemotherapy," said Kim, the study's corresponding author. "Based on our findings, I'm hopeful that Iressa can return as a treatment for lung cancer in the United States, offering this some patients a therapy with far fewer side effects."
The study also should offer both physicians and patients some confidence in another biological oral therapy, erlotinib, commercially known as Tarceva, that hits similar targets as Iressa and is commercially available for the treatment of lung cancer in the second line setting, explained Kim.

Gene Which Protects Against Lung Cancer Identified

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2008) — A study led by researchers at The University of Nottingham has identified a gene that protects the body from lung cancer. The research has found that the tumour suppressor gene, LIMD1, is responsible for protecting the body from developing lung cancer — paving the way for possible new treatments and early screening techniques.