Current issues in lung cancer

Current issues highlight some of the latest research into lung cancer, new therapies becoming available and new drug treatments coming to the market.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer There is no longer any doubt that this relatively new imaging, which relies on the metabolic activity of the abnormality being imaged – thus high metabolic activity in cancer and low in most benign...
Amifostine as a Radio- and Chemo- Protector The sulphydryl containing agent: amifostine has been recently demonstrated to reduce the incidence of acute toxicity (e.g. pneumonitis and oesophagitis) during radical/curative chemo-radiotherapy...
Etoposide/platinum chemotherapy and concurrent dose-intense radiotherapy for small cell (oat cell) lung cancer It is now becoming clear that for patients with small cell (oat cell) lung cancer that is localised to the chest at the time of presentation, there is extra benefit from the combination of multi-drug...
Prophylactic Cranial Radiotherapy in small cell (oat cell) lung cancer This has been an issue for decades viz. the high relapse rate of small cell lung cancer in the brain and whether it is sensible to anticipate this relapse problem and forestall it by early brain...
Radiotherapy and Tewo drug chemotherapy for stage 3 non-small cell lung cancer An optimistic set of results from Vanderbult University using the combination of paclitaxel (taxol) and carboplatin, given concurrently with chest radiation were presented at the Chemotherapy...
Docetaxel in locally advanced lung cancer Although cisplatin based chemotherapy used prior to definitive therapy/surgery/RT (i.e. neoadjuvantly) may slightly improve survival in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer, toxicity somewhat...
Genetic link to malignant Mesothelioma established by Turkish epidemiological study An analysis of six generations of a population of Karain suggests that mesothelioma is probably transmitted as an autosomal dominant. |In this population malignant mesothelioma is the cause of death...
Combination chemotherapy beats single agents for advanced non-small cell lung cancer In the recent American Society of Clinical Oncolgy (ASCO) meeting in Florida, data were presented that showed clearly that the combination of paclitaxel and carboplatin was superior to paclitaxel...
Erlotinib improves the survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer In a study presented by the National Cancer Institute of Canada at the 2005 American society for Clinical Oncology, patients who had EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor)positive non-small cell...
Does lung cancer screening by CT pick up more curable cancer? Recent advances in CT scanning have made the possibility of lung CT screening more practicable. (64-row scanners can create an image of the whole thorax with a slicew thickness of 0.625 mm in less...