LCA and 14 Other Lung Cancer Organizations Send Letter to NIH and NCI Requesting $100M for Lung Cancer Research

LCA and 14 Other Lung Cancer Organizations Send Letter to NIH and NCI Requesting $100M for Lung Cancer Research

The following letter was sent to the Acting Director of National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Director of National Cancer Institute (NCI) regarding the increase in funding to NIH through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009:

February 24, 2009

Raynard S. Kington, MD, PhD
Acting Director
National Institutes of Health
Bldg. 1, Rm. 328
1 Center Dr.
MSC 0148
Bethesda, MD 20892-0148

John E. Niederhuber, M.D.
Director
National Cancer Institute
Bldg 31, Rm 11A48
31 Center Dr. MSC 2590
Bethesda, MD 20892

Dear Dr. Kington and Dr. Niederhuber,

President Obama and the Congress recognized the importance of medical research to our economy and public health by including $10.4B for the National Institute of Health in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) signed into law last week.
In addition, with the Continuing Resolution about to expire, Congress will take final action this week on FY 09 appropriations bills for certain agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services. The draft bills call for an increase of $938 million for NIH, for a total of $30.3 billion for FY 09, and an increase of $186 million in funding for NCI for a total of $4.968 billion in FY09

With this unprecedented injection of additional funding under the ARRA and with the added FY09 funding, we urge you set aside at least $100 million for a comprehensive, coordinated and long overdue effort to reduce lung cancer mortality.

Lung cancer continues to take more lives each year than those caused by the next four most common cancers combined. Indeed, only heart disease surpasses lung cancer in mortality in the United States. Despite the warnings in The Progress Review Group Report to NCI in 2001, lung cancer research continues to be funded far below its enormous public health impact.

When the NCI budget was doubled during the years 1997 through 2001, no proportionate increase was made in lung cancer research funding. In FY 08, according to NIH’s Estimates of Funding for Various Research, Condition and Disease Categories, only 6% of NIH’s entire budget covering all the institutes was allotted for lung cancer research and only 3% at NCI specifically.
In recent reports published in the Journal of NCI on the cost of cancer care under Medicare, the productivity costs of cancer, and the estimates and projections of the value of life lost from cancer death, lung cancer tops every chart.

We urge you to utilize $100 million from the ARRA and the FY 09 appropriations for a comprehensive and coordinated lung cancer research and mortality reduction program.

Sincerely,

Laurie Fenton Ambrose
President & CEO
Lung Cancer Alliance

Tracy Sestili
President
Beverly Fund

Bonnie J. Addario
Founder & President
Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation

Tammy Coppedge
Brittany’s Battle

Jose Ramos
Executive Director
Gail P. Ramos Lung Cancer Foundation

Joe Gaeta
President
Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Foundation

Susan Mantel
Executive Director
Joan’s Legacy: Uniting Against Lung Cancer

Dan Hart
Liz Martocci Lung Cancer Foundation

Cindy Langhorne
Program Director
Caring Ambassadors Lung Cancer Program

Susan Levin
President
Lung Cancer Circle of Hope

Lori Monroe
Co-Founder
Lung Cancer Foundation of America

Beth Ida Stern
Executive Director
LUNGevity

Regina Vidaver, Ph.D
Executive Director
National Lung Cancer Partnership

Andrea Stearn Ferris
Founder & Executive Director
Protect Your Lungs

Tom Labrecque
President
Thomas G. Labrecque Foundation

N.C. could step up lung cancer research

North Carolina news: Smoking ban proponents gear up

National Lung Cancer Partnership's Latest Newsletter

Lung Cancer Remains No. 1 Cancer Killer

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) --

A new campaign is underway to raise awareness for Lung Cancer—the number one cancer killer.
The campaign, sponsored by the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Foundation, features mounted bus ads all over San Francisco MUNI buses.

Shelia Von Driska, Executive Director for the foundation, says that the number of deaths due to lung cancer has gone up dramatically in the last decade. In 1987, the number of deaths caused by lung cancer surpassed those of breast cancer. More recently, doctors have found a disturbing rise in lung cancer among women in their 30s and 40s who are non-smokers.

“There’s sort of a false sense of security that you can’t get lung cancer if you don’t smoke, so we really want to save lives, that’s our ultimate goal,” said Driska.

The campaign is attempting to raise $20 million from a one million people for lung cancer research. With Sunday's Academy Awards in mind, the creative and fun public service campaign features the headline "Best Picture goes to the CAT scan for achievement in detecting lung cancer early.”

To make a donation to the campaign, visit their website at http://www.thelungcancerfoundation.org/.

VETERANS ORGANIZATIONS CALL FOR EARLY LUNG CANCER DETECTION RESEARCH

CNNhealth.com - Lung cancer vaccine 'extends terminal patients lives'

By Shasta Darlington

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Terminal lung cancer patients are living longer thanks to the world's first registered lung cancer vaccine, a leading Cuban scientist says.

Dr. Gisela Gonzalez has spent years researching the vaccine which the Cuban government approved for the use of the general public last year.

Gonzalez and her team have worked on developing the CimaVax EGF vaccine at the Cuban Center of Molecular Immunology since the early 1990s.

She says all those years of hard work have finally paid off as trials show that Cubans with lung cancer are living a little longer after having the vaccine.

"One of my early patients was a 32-year-old man when he started taking the vaccine. I had a son that age," the scientist told CNN.

"Now he's 35. He's living and working. He visited us the other day and said he's thinking about having kids."

Gonzalez says that more than 700 patients have received the vaccine over the years, many of them in seven clinical trials in Cuba, Canada and the UK.

More than 400 advanced lung cancer patients received the Vaccine CimaVax EGF in the trials, according to the Latin American News Agency.

The trials showed that the drug extended the life of terminal patients by an average of four months, and in some cases several years, compared with those patients who only received traditional therapies. Younger patients tended to fare better.

"It has the potential to be very important," according to Dr. Howard Burris, director of drug development at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee.

He said the results were comparable to those being produced by two other lung cancer vaccines, GVAX and BLP 25, being developed in the United States.

"Larger trials will show there are subsets that it's very good for and for others it's not relevant," he said.

CimaVax EGF does not prevent or cure lung cancer. It is a therapeutic vaccine which stimulates the patient's body to make an antibody against the epidermal growth factor (EGF), which is a key driver causing lung cancer cells to grow.

It is used in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiation therapy which reduce the size of the initial tumor.

To read more - http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/19/cuba.cancer.vaccine/index.html

SC House Speaker Bobby Harrell Proposes 50-cent Per Pack Cigarette Tax Hike

The State - SC Politics Today - http://www.thestate.com

Harrell proposes 50-cent hike in cigarette tax

House speaker Bobby Harrell has introduced a bill to raise the state's cigarette tax by 50 cents, with the proceeds going to help small businesses and low-income workers to buy health insurance.

Harrell allowed a similar bill to die last year when he pushed the House to uphold a veto by Gov. Mark Sanford. The governor wants an increase in the cigarette tax to help pay for the elimination of corporate income taxes.

"This plan will directly reduce the number of uninsured workers in our state," Harrell said in a release. Providing obtainable access to private sector health care coverage will greatly increase the quality of life for those newly insured and create a better future for our state as a whole. Government can help provide solutions, but more government is not the answer to our problems."

LCA Mourns the Passing of Karen Parles, Beloved Friend and Pioneering Advocate Who Changed the Face of Lung Cancer

Tuesday, February 17, 2009--Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) President & CEO Laurie Fenton-Ambrose issued the following statement today in honor of Karen Parles of Setauket, New York, who died after an 11 year battle, of lung cancer on February 16, 2009:

The entire lung cancer community is deeply, deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved friend and passionate advocate who did more than any other to provide critical information and build public awareness for lung cancer.

Karen was a vivacious 38 year old wife and mother who had never smoked or was otherwise exposed to known carcinogens in her life and was stunned to learn she had lung cancer in 1998. Searching online for answers she recognized the need for far more information than was available at that time.

A Williams College graduate, she put her Master of Library Science degree in service to all those affected by lung cancer by starting the highly acclaimed “lungcanceronline.org” a carefully researched source of information which evaluated, annotated and indexed high-quality lung cancer resources and services. Her website was written up in several medical journals and magazines.

In addition to being the founder and editor of the online information service, for several years she expanded her foundation to award grants to promising research projects.

She also co-authored a highly respected guide entitled; 100 Questions & Answers About Lung Cancer which has been distributed to thousands affected by the disease.

In 2005, Karen received the Catherine Logan Award for outstanding service to survivors from the National Coalition of Cancer Survivors.

And in 2005, Karen agreed to be the “Face of Lung Cancer” in LCA’s first national awareness campaign by appearing in an ad that ran in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other Washington based public policy journals.

This ad literally changed the face of lung cancer and exposed the stigma of smoking that has thwarted research funding and so unfairly caused lung cancer patients to be blamed for their disease whether they smoked or not.

During all this time, she continued her treatments which became increasingly difficult although she never complained about the physical toll. Her primary concern was always first and foremost for her family: her beloved husband James, a pediatrician, her children Casey and Christopher whom she was determined to see into college, and her parents, Shirley and Howard deLong.

Even as her cancer progressed, Karen continued her selfless contributions through enrollment in clinical trials. She was determined to turn her experience into a benefit for her fellow patients and those at risk for the disease.

We are deeply grateful for the years of support, sage advice and counsel that Karen provided us.

We will always admire her courage and grace.

On behalf of the entire LCA staff and stakeholders, I extend our deepest sympathy to Jamie, Casey and Christopher, and to her parents. We will honor Karen’s life by renewing our commitment to her goal of changing the course of lung cancer -- forever.

Thank you, Karen. We will miss you.

The New York Times: Vitamin Pills: A False Hope?

The New York Times: Push Is On to Tailor Cancer Care to Tumor's Genes

Science Daily reports: New Platinum-based Anti-tumor Compound Developed

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2009)

Researchers in the Department of Chemistry at Wake Forest University in collaboration with colleagues at the Wake Forest University Health Sciences Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a new class of platinum-based anti-tumor drugs that animal studies have shown to be 10 times more effective than current treatments in destroying certain types of lung cancer cells.

The results were published in the December 11 issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and highlighted in Science-Business eXchange (SciBX), produced by the publisher of the journal Nature. They suggest a new approach to fighting non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for more than three-quarters of all lung cancers. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in both men and women. Less than a third of non-small cell lung cancer patients respond to traditional platinum-based therapies, and those who do respond have a median survival of less than a year.

“We are able to slow the growth of this cancer substantially in mice,” said principal investigator Ulrich Bierbach, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Fellow and associate professor of chemistry at Wake Forest. “That is very good news, since this is such a rapidly growing, intractable type of cancer.”

The new compound’s potency derives from its ability to rapidly bind with and disable a tumor cell’s DNA before the cell’s natural repair mechanisms are activated. That repair process causes drug resistance, which reduces the effectiveness of currently used platinum-based drugs.
Bierbach has focused his research efforts since 1992 on finding ways to overcome the resistance problems inherent in platinum-based drugs. He joined the Wake Forest faculty in 1999, and since 2001, has led a research team that included participation by eight graduate students and more than 30 undergraduate students. The recent paper marks the 25th he has published on the topic.

“If this ends up in clinical trials in the next few years, that will fulfill a dream of mine,” Bierbach said.

His research efforts will now be directed toward finding ways to boost the tumor-killing potency of the new compounds while reducing harmful side effects.

The new hybrid compounds are available for licensing from the Wake Forest University Office of Technology Asset Management.

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Science Daily reports: Regular Physical Activity Linked To Better Quality Of Life In Early-stage Lung Cancer Survivors

ScienceDaily (Feb. 9, 2009)

Survivors of early-stage lung cancer who take part in regular physical activity have a better quality of life, according to a study in the February issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, available online now. Patients who are more physically active report better mood, more vigor, and greater physical functioning, the study shows.

"The take-home message is that early-stage lung cancer survivors may benefit, both mentally and physically, from simple moderate exercise," says the paper's lead author Elliot Coups, Ph.D., associate member of Fox Chase Cancer Center's faculty and a participant in the Fox Chase Keystone Program in Cancer Risk and Prevention. "Of course, we're generally not talking marathons here, but smaller, everyday forms of activity like going for a brisk walk several times a week."

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society, and the disease tends to strike older adults who have a history of smoking. Coups and his colleagues studied patients diagnosed with early-stage, non-small cell lung carcinomas. These individuals have a five-year survival rate of nearly 50 percent, compared to three percent for those diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer.

"With early detection and treatment, more people may live longer following surgery for early-stage lung cancer," Coups says. "For these individuals, the act of surviving cancer will follow them the rest of their days, and we are interested in understanding what we can do to promote their overall health and well-being."

Coups and his colleagues at Fox Chase and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center followed 175 people who had completed surgical treatment for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer within the previous six years. On average, patients were about 68 years old at the time of the study and did not currently have cancer. Patients were asked to estimate their level of physical activity six months before the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer, during the six months following surgery and their current activity levels. The survey included standardized questionnaires to assess quality of life in terms of a patient's physical, mental and social well-being.

Approximately one in four participants met physical activity guidelines, which call for about 60 minutes each week of strenuous activity, such as jogging, or 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as walking briskly. Overall, the level of activity for survey participants was comparable to that of the population at large for their age group, Coups says.

Coups and his colleagues also found that those participants who met the guidelines reported fewer depressive symptoms, greater vitality, and less shortness of breath when compared to their more sedentary counterparts.

"Unfortunately, we see that most lung cancer survivors do not meet guidelines set for physical activity, especially in the six months following surgery," Coups says. "While it is certainly understandable that people might not be able to exercise as vigorously as they had done before lung surgery, our study suggests that healthcare providers ought to discuss the potential benefits of moderate physical activity among early-stage lung cancer survivors as a means of increasing their quality of life."

Funding for this research comes from grants from the National Cancer Institute and the Byrne Foundation.

The New York Times: Political Science

By PETER DIZIKES
Published: February 12, 2009

A smiling Harold Varmus looks out from the cover of his memoir, “The Art and Politics of Science.” Behind him hangs a copy of Jacques-Louis David’s celebrated portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, the French chemist. Varmus is one of our leading scientific figures, a Nobel Prize-winning cancer researcher who advises President Obama, but I’m not sure this is an auspicious image. Lavoi­sier’s own entanglement in politics led to his beheading during the French Revolution. Thankfully, Varmus seems quite adroit in public matters.

He has also written a perceptive book about science and its civic value, arriving as the White House renews its acquaintance with empiricism. Varmus recounts his laboratory career and tenure as director of the National Institutes of Health, then surveys topical issues like stem-cell research. One implication of this book is that far from disconnecting politics and science, we should find better ways of linking them.

Varmus, who is now president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, starts with his life story and his research. Although his mother died of cancer as his career studying it began, he avoids melodrama and simply gets on with a brisk narrative of scientific exploration. In the 1970s, Varmus and colleagues discovered a series of genes, called proto-oncogenes, that can cause cancer. Grasping the mechanics of this has helped us develop drugs for numerous cancers, including leukemia and lung cancer.

Continue the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/books/review/Dizikes-t.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=lung%20cancer&st=cse

for Joan, The Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Foundation

Dance toward a lung cancer cure

By Jennifer Brett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, February 12, 2009

Not quite a year after Joan Gaeta died in 2007 of lung cancer, her husband and five children threw a party to remember her and raise awareness about the disease that stole her from them.
The lifelong nonsmoker died at 68. Because she and husband Richard never met a dance floor they didn’t love, the family decided “Dancing for Joan” would be a fitting theme for the event. Last year’s inaugural bash raised more than $40,000 for The Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Foundation, which sponsored Saint Joseph’s Hospital’s fourth annual Atlanta Lung Cancer Awareness Run and Walk. The foundation also supports a monthly lung cancer support group at the hospital.

The second annual “Dancing for Joan” starts at 7 p.m. Feb. 21 at The Pavilion of East Cobb. CNN’s Nancy Grace emcees and Paul Scheinberg, chief of staff at St. Joseph’s, serves as honorary chairman.

Tickets are $100 each, and the event features dinner, dancing and a cash bar. It’s cocktail attire. Wear your dancing shoes, too.

For information, call 404-435-7376, e-mail gaetafoundation@gmail.com or see http://www.jglcf.org

Roche Takes Genentech Bid Hostile

The New York Times
Edited by Andrew Ross Sorkin
February 10, 2009

Genentech’s directors told Roche in December that they would consider selling their company for $112 a share, an amount much higher than Roche was willing to pay, according to details of the negotiations made public on Monday.

The details, the first public indication of the behind-the-scenes discussions between the companies, are contained in documents related to the tender offer by Roche on Monday, The New York Times’s Andrew Pollack writes. Roche is seeking to buy the 44 percent of Genentech it does not own for $86.50 a share in cash, or about $42 billion.

Unable to reach a deal with the Genentech board after first proposing an $89-a-share takeover last July, Roche late last month said it would go directly to Genentech’s stockholders through a tender offer.

Roche also said in the filings on Monday that after buying tendered shares, it planned to exercise its right to increase its representation on Genentech’s board to be proportional to its stake in the company, which would give it a majority on the board. It now holds 3 of 7 seats.

A special committee of Genentech’s board that has been dealing with Roche urged shareholders on Monday to take no action on the tender offer. The committee said it would issue a formal position on the offer within 10 business days. The committee previously criticized Roche’s intention to make a tender offer as a “unilateral and opportunistic step.”

Genentech’s shares closed at $82.70 Monday, down 30 cents, but recovered the same amount in after-hours trading.

In Monday’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Roche said Goldman Sachs, which has been representing the Genentech board committee, initially refused to place a value on the company until Roche raised its offer.

Greenhill & Company, which represented Roche, told Goldman as early as Oct. 2 that Roche was getting frustrated and might resort to other options. In November, Genentech presented a long-range business forecast, which was used to justify a value of the company at $112 to $115 a share.

Roche said that forecast was significantly more optimistic than Genentech’s previous long-range plan, which had been provided to Roche in June. Roche said it disagreed with many of the assumptions in the new Genentech forecast. It also said the economic downturn and credit crisis had “fundamentally altered” expectations and valuations placed on Genentech and other biotechnology companies since it made its initial offer.

Roche said it was somewhat less optimistic than Genentech that Genentech’s drug Avastin would be successful in trials testing it as a treatment for colon and lung cancer after surgery. The drug currently is approved only to treat cancers that have recurred or spread. Postsurgical use could add more than $1 billion to sales of Avastin, which were $2.7 billion in the United States in 2008.

Analysts expect many stockholders will not tender their shares, on the expectation that if Avastin succeeds in the adjuvant colon cancer trial in April, Genentech’s shares will shoot up well past Roche’s offer.

The tender offer expires at midnight March 12, but Roche has the option to extend it.

Regimens: Multivitamins Not Found to Reduce Risks

The New York Times
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: February 9, 2009

Many postmenopausal women take multivitamins in the belief that they help prevent cardiovascular disease or cancer, but a large study has found that they do neither.

Previous studies have had mixed results, some suggesting that multivitamin supplements are associated with a reduced risk for some cancers, others finding little or no effect.

For the new findings, published in the February issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed data from 68,132 women who were enrolled in a clinical trial and 93,676 in an observational study. They followed the women for an average of about eight years to track the health effects of multivitamins.

After controlling for age, physical activity, family history of cancer and many other factors, the researchers found that the supplements had no effect on the risk for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, heart attack, stroke, blot clots or mortality.

The scientists acknowledge that women who take vitamins also engage in other healthy behaviors, and that there may be unknown variables affecting their results.

“Consumers spend money on dietary supplements with the thought that they are going to improve their health, but there’s no evidence for this,” said Marian L. Neuhouser, the lead author and a nutritional epidemiologist with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “Buying more fruits and vegetables might be a better choice.”