Lung Cancer: November 2006 Archives

TUESDAY, Nov. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Cigarette makers may publicly admit that their products cause cancer, but when sued by sick smokers, they deny or minimize the link, according to a new analysis of lawsuits.

Researchers at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Detroit reviewed 34 personal injury claims brought against major tobacco manufacturers in the United States between 1986 and 2003.

The defense arguments used by the tobacco companies included: a lack of scientific proof that smoking causes cancer; denials that a plaintiff had lung cancer; or acknowledging that a plaintiff had lung cancer, but a kind of lung cancer not caused by smoking.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Tobacco-related diseases including cancers and heart disease will kill 6.4 million people a year by 2015, 50 percent more than AIDS, a study said on Tuesday.

But the HIV/AIDS epidemic will be the leading cause of illness and disability in low- and middle-income countries by then and take an increasing number of lives worldwide, it said.

The study by World Health Organization (WHO) researchers projects global figures for mortality and the burden of 10 major disease groups in both 2015 and 2030. 

"According to our baseline projection, smoking will kill 50 percent more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS and will be responsible for 10 percent of all deaths globally," said their study in the Public Library of Science Medicine (PLoS Medicine).

HealthDay News -- Giving nicotine patches a two-week "head start" more than doubles the chances they'll help smokers kick the habit, research finds.

A U.S. team found that by applying the patch 14 days before that last cigarette, users greatly boosted their long-term success rate.

The initial study was published earlier this year in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, and a second trial has now replicated those findings, according to Jed E. Rose, medical research professor and director of Duke University's Center for Nicotine Cessation Research. He led the original study and is co-inventor of the nicotine patch.

Up to 200 people a year die from lung cancer caused by high levels of radon gas in Ireland – way above the global average, health organisations revealed today.

Between 6% and 15% of annual lung cancer deaths across the world are caused by exposure to the gas, which equates to up to 170,000 deaths, according to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In Ireland, up to 13% of lung cancer deaths are caused by exposure to radon, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) said today.

Lung cancer has claimed the title of most deadly cancer in the Chinese capital, sources with the Beijing Research Institute of Tumor Prevention and Control said on Monday.

Zhi Xiuyi , a professor with Capital Medical University, said Beijingers are increasingly familiar with lung cancer. One out of every four cancer sufferers in the city is a lung cancer patient.

With incidence of the disease on rise, the average age at which a patient contracts lung cancer goes down by 12 months every five years, Zhi added.

The youngest lung cancer sufferer diagnosed by the Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center of Beijing's Xuanwu Hospital was only 21 years old.

HealthDay News -- A simple breath test could someday help predict who's at highest risk of getting lung cancer.

In preliminary research, the breath test was successful in finding cancer "markers," said senior researcher Dr. Simon D. Spivack, a pulmonologist at the Wadsworth Center, the public health laboratory of the New York State Department of Health.

That's important, he added, because "lung cancer [typically] exists for a decade or two before it is diagnosed."

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Jim Boyd smoked for 40 years before quitting this summer. Both of his parents died of smoking-related illnesses.

Boyd, 61 and a resident of Wentzville, Mo., hopes to avoid their fate by participating in a multinational research study through St. Joseph Health Center in St. Charles, part of the SSM Health Care System. The study aims to catch lung cancer early by using spiral CT scans to find tiny cancerous lesions in patients' lungs.

Early results, published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine, found the process was able to detect lung cancer in its earliest stage, when surgery could be most successful.

However, Boyd's insurance company will not cover the $300 cost of the test.

Two University of Louisville researchers have developed a vaccine that prevents lung cancer in mice, a treatment they say could lead to a vaccine for humans against lung and other forms of cancer. 

John W. Eaton, one of the researchers, presented the findings today at an international cancer conference in Prague, Czech Republic.

Eaton, deputy director of UofL's James Graham Brown Cancer Center, said that the results in mice are promising but that much more research is needed — particularly into whether the results will translate to humans.

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Radiation treatment for prostate cancer can go a lot smoother if the patient doesn't smoke.

According to researchers from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, smokers end up with significantly worse side effects from the treatment than nonsmokers.

The study was conducted among nearly 1,200 men being treated with 3-D conformal radiation therapy. Investigators collected information on smoking habits and history and then monitored the men for gastrointestinal and genitourinary side effects.

"Our patients who smoked during treatment reported having more acute gastrointestinal side-effects such as diarrhea," reports lead study author Niraj Pahlajani, M.D.

The New England Journal of Medicine reported recently that early detection of lung tumors by using advanced CT imaging yields an estimated 10-year survival rate of more than 90 percent, and smokers and others at high risk should be routinely screened.

Researchers said the study of more than 30,000 patients in seven countries indicates that the scans, which allow physicians to detect much smaller objects than can be seen on a conventional chest X-ray, are as cost-effective and beneficial as mammography for breast cancer.

Still, some cancer experts said the study does not prove that screening reduces deaths from lung cancer and that it is too soon to recommend widespread use. While there may be some validity to that argument and further study is needed, it would seem to make sense for smokers and former smokers to have scans for early lung cancer detection.

Those scans are very important, especially when it is estimated that 162,460 people will die of lung cancer this year.

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by Jacki Donaldson, The Cancer Blog

In 2006, 174,470 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States. About 92,700 men and 81,770 women will develop the disease -- the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women.

An estimated 162,460 men and women will die of lung cancer this year, accounting for 28 percent of all cancer deaths and taking more lives than colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined. While most people diagnosed with lung cancer will die within the first two years of diagnosis -- this has not changed in 10 years -- some people are cured. There are currently about 333,000 long-term survivors.

Lung cancer -- the most preventable of all cancers -- typically occurs in the elderly. Nearly 70 percent of people diagnosed with the disease are older than 65. Fewer than three percent are under the age of 45.

TRENTON, N.J. - State-of-the-art ventilation systems used to clear cigarette smoke from bars and restaurants don't eliminate dangerous soot and carcinogens and can even push their levels higher in nonsmoking sections than in smoking areas, researchers concluded.

Their findings from three restaurants in a little-studied field come just a week before voters in Arizona, Nevada and Ohio consider dueling smoking-related initiatives. Ballots in each state include a tough ban on smoking in public places and a more lenient proposal — with exemptions for bars and casinos — backed by industry groups.

Two of the restaurants studied were Mesa, Ariz., establishments that had claimed their ventilation systems would comply with that city's smoke-free restaurant law.

Seventy per cent of patients with lung cancer had never regarded the disease as a threat prior to learning of their condition, according to the results from a major European public and patient survey.

The survey found that close to half of lung cancer patients admitted that their diagnosis was discovered by chance during a visit to the doctor for another reason.

It also revealed that of the lung cancer patients polled, 83% of those receiving chemotherapy endured difficult side effects and a compromised quality of life from their treatments.

According to consultant medical oncologist Prof Desmond Carney, Lung Cancer Awareness Month this month offers a great opportunity to improve the general public's knowledge of the signs and symptoms of lung cancer, particularly in at-risk groups.

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court in Washington has blocked a judgment against tobacco companies, clearing the way for them to continue selling "light" and "low tar" cigarettes.

In August, Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that the companies violated racketeering laws and conspired for decades to mislead the public about the health hazards of smoking. She ordered the companies to publish "corrective statements" on the adverse health effects and addictiveness of smoking and nicotine. She also ordered tobacco companies to stop labeling cigarettes with terms such as "low tar," "light," or "mild," because those cigarettes were no safer than others.Tobacco companies argued that the marketing ban would cost them (m) millions of dollars and lead to a loss of customers. Today's decision, issued without comment, puts Kessler's ruling on hold.

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What's the best way to convince a teenager that smoking is a great idea? Tell him his parents want him to stop.

That's the rather disturbing suggestion of a study of teens who had watched tobacco-industry-funded television ads urging parents to talk to their children about smoking. The study shows that these teens were more likely to have smoked in the past month and more likely to say that they planned to smoke in the future.