LCB

This student spells out her views on smoking in the an open letter published in the IOWA State Daily.

'Everyone refers to how it's our choice to do whatever we feel like on current issues. But I feel like my choice is being stripped from me when it comes to the smoking issue on campus. The Thursday before break, Nov. 15, was the Great American Smoke Out; I felt so disregarded as I saw a student kick down one of the signs we, the ISU chapter of Colleges Against Cancer, put up around campus with lung-cancer facts. By the time I reached the sign to reposition it, the student was gone, cigarette butt next to it.'

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The use of positron emission tomography, known as PET scans, can improve the diagnosis of people with lung cancer and better guide treatment decisions, Canadian researchers said on Tuesday. Doctors often use imaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, or computed tomography imaging, called CT scans, along with other methods to see if a patient has lung cancer.

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Nicotine is the psychoactive drug in tobacco products that produces dependence. Most smokers are dependent on nicotine, and smokeless tobacco use can also lead to nicotine dependence. Nicotine dependence is the most common form of chemical dependence in the United States. Research suggests that nicotine is as addictive as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol. Examples of nicotine withdrawal symptoms include irritability, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and increased appetite. Quitting tobacco use is difficult and may require multiple attempts, as users often relapse because of withdrawal symptoms. Tobacco dependence is a chronic condition that often requires repeated intervention.

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HealthDay News states that researchers have identified the chemical pathway by which a mother's smoking before and after pregnancy might reduce her daughter's fertility by as much as two-thirds. Cigarette smoking during pregnancy has been shown in retrospective studies to affect the fertility of a woman's offspring, but this is the first study to offer an explanation of the biology behind the effect, the Canadian scientists claim.

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Anyone interested in watching lung cancer surgery can tune in on their computer this week and see it for themselves. Surgeons at Sentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk will perform a lobectomy - removal of part of the lung - on a lung cancer patient Thursday afternoon. The surgery is done through a small incision under the arm and is expected to last two to three hours. The webcast is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. on Thursday. An archived edition will be available later.

Read more...or view it on the net @ sentara.com

But it lacks the high-profile publicity campaign. A few weeks ago, during the height of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it was hard to go anywhere without seeing a sea of pink. Pink Campbell's Soup cans at the grocery store. Pink mixers, potholders and spatulas at cookware shops. Pink ribbons on, well, just about everything. That was October. Now it's November, and it's Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Lung cancer doesn't get the attention of breast cancer, but it's an even bigger killer of women.

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Trials test new methods to detect lung cancer

Several trials -- including the National Lung Screening Trial -- are under way to try to find a way to detect the deadliest, and most preventable, type of cancer at an earlier stage.
This latest study looks at an X-ray method called spiral CT scanning, which has shown promise in detecting early lung cancer in smokers and former smokers. That research is especially timely in November, for it has been designated the Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

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Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer diagnosed in the U.S. and the leading cause of cancer death. This year, the American Cancer Society estimates 213,380 new cases of lung cancer will occur in the U.S. It’s most commonly diagnosed in people over 65 (average age at diagnosis is 70). About 160,390 men and women will die from the disease.
A leading risk factor for lung cancer is cigarette smoking. Researchers estimate about 87 percent of lung cancers can be attributed to smoking. Nonsmokers who live with a smoker have a 20 to 30 percent increased risk for lung cancer due to second hand tobacco smoke.

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Lung cancer affects more than 1.2 million patients a year, with around 1.1 million deaths annually and 500,000 in the US, Europe and Japan.
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the leading causes of death, resulting in the worst survival rates for all cancers and killing more patients than breast, colon and prostate cancer together, accounting for nearly 30% of all cancer deaths. According to the WHO, NSCLC affects more than 1.2 million patients a year, with around 1.1 million deaths annually and around 500,000 in the US, Europe and Japan.

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Rural patients are often assumed to be the top truants in American medicine, not seeking medical attention until a condition is more advanced and less treatable. However, a new study by Dartmouth researchers suggests that urban, not rural, patients are most likely to slip through the cracks—at least when it comes to colorectal and lung cancer.

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A comprehensive view yet of the abnormal genetic landscape of lung cancer, the world's leading cause of cancer deaths. Appearing in the Nov. 4 advance online issue of Nature, the research reveals more than 50 genomic regions that are frequently gained or lost in human lung tumors.
While one-third of these regions contain genes already known to play important roles in lung cancer, the majority harbor new genes yet to be discovered. Flowing from this work, the researchers uncovered a critical gene alteration--not previously associated with any form of cancer--that is implicated in a significant fraction of lung cancer cases, shedding light on the biological basis of the disease and a potential new target for treatment.

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Some Utah based researchers are urging people who live along the Wasatch Front to have their homes tested for Radon. This is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that can cause 10% of lung cancer even in those who don't smoke.
Researchers say that it doesn't matter what the age of your home is. This is because many homes along the Wasatch Front are built on uranium-rich granite. Radon is a gas that comes from the natural breakdown of underground uranium. Bob Parenti, president of the Utah Safety Council, explained that Radon is a gas brought about by decay in the soil and that radioactive decay can actually permeate foundations in homes.

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WVU researchers identify gene pattern to help predict lung cancer recurrence

According to the American Lung Association, only 16 percent of patients diagnosed with lung cancer have a 5-year survival rate. Researchers at West Virginia University have identified and patented a 35-gene signature to help predict lung cancer recurrence following the surgical removal of lung tumors. “The gene-signature could lead to improved treatment options for patients prone to relapse,” principle researcher Lan Guo, Ph.D., said. “It could help physicians determine which lung cancer patients should receive chemotherapy to prevent the tumor from reappearing.”

According to Guo, statistics indicate nearly half of the patients who undergo surgical removal of their tumors in the early stages of lung cancer will relapse within five years.

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I won't let Daddy die: Girl of six raises £4,000 for life-saving drugs the NHS won't provide

Faced with the prospect of losing her father to cancer, Chantelle Hill reacted a little differently to the average six-year-old. Instead of letting the grown-ups deal with it, she decided to save him herself. Now, she has raised more than £4,000 to buy the life-saving drugs David Hill needs after he was told they were not available to him on the Health Service. The little girl made posters bearing the words, "Please help me to save my daddy" and plastered them all over her home town of Darlington.

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Having someone who cares may be more important than medical factors

CHICAGO - Having someone to drive you to cancer treatments or make sure you are eating may be even more important than tumor size or other medical factors in predicting cancer survival, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They found patients with a below-average quality of life before getting treatment for lung cancer — those in poor health or with inadequate support networks — had nearly a 70 percent higher death rate than those with a better one.

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Cannabis is often compared to tobacco, with the damage caused by smoking tobacco given as a reason to prohibit use of cannabis. Yet most of the harms caused by tobacco use are due not to tar, but to the use of radioactive fertilizers. Surprisingly, radiation seems to be the most dangerous and important factor behind tobacco lung damage.It's a well established but little known fact that commercially grown tobacco is contaminated with radiation. The major source of this radiation is phosphate fertilizer.1 The big tobacco companies all use chemical phosphate fertilizer, which is high in radioactive metals, year after year on the same soil.

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A recent study on mice has identified a gene that suppresses lung cancer. The study at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center discovered that the gene GPRC5A, which is under-expressed in human lung cancer cells, suppresses lung tumour by providing a key to attach lung cancer in human.
The authors found that, mice with both of their GPRC5A genes suppressed developed 76 percent precancerous lesions called adenomas in their lungs and another 17 percent developed malignancies called adenocarcinomas normally until their second year of life. Only 10 percent of mice with both GPRC5A genes intact developed adenomas, and only 11 percent with one working version of the gene while none of the mice in the latter two groups developed lung cancer.

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Many cancer patients including those with lung cancer use alternative or complimentary therapies. Alternative therapies are defined as treatments that are not used by conventional physicians and can include: vitamin and herbal therapies, Traditional Chinese Medicine, mind-body medicine, and anti-cancer diets. Complimentary or "integrative" therapies are defined as using alternative approaches in combination with conventional therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.

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