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DUBLIN-Two metaanalyses have pointed to small but clear-cut survival gains for patients with inoperable locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Now, a randomized phase III Japanese study indicates that response rates are higher and survival longer when the two therapeutic modalities are given concurrently rather than sequentially.

DUBLIN-Preliminary results suggest that the use of single-agent topotecan (Hycamtin) as second-line therapy for small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) in patients who failed after an initial response to first-line therapy provides efficacy similar to that of the commonly used regimen of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and vincristine (CAV).

DUBLIN-Harnessing MIC chemotherapy to radiotherapy is more effective than radiotherapy alone in patients with locally advanced inoperable non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to the findings of a multicenter randomized UK trial reported at the 8th World Conference on Lung Cancer.

DUBLIN-The question of whether patients with locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) would live longer if they underwent chemotherapy prior to surgical resection would appear to be yes, based on two randomized trials reported in 1994.

DUBLIN-The shift from histologic classification to molecular analysis of bronchial epithelial cells is opening up new prospects for detecting the molecular signature of lung cancer before the disease becomes clinically evident, James L. Mulshine, MD, of the National Cancer Institute, said at the 8th World Conference on Lung Cancer.

BETHESDA, Md-The Food and Drug Administration’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has recommended approval of QLT Photo-Therapeutics’ Photofrin (porfimer sodium) for use as photodynamic therapy (PDT) of T1 stage endobronchial carcinoma in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for whom surgery and radiotherapy are not indicated.

NEW YORK-Today’s treatments for lung cancer are much better tolerated than treatments used 20 years ago, Robert Ginsberg, MD, chief of the Thoracic Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said at an NIH video satellite symposium beamed to 20 selected centers nationwide.

It should be noted that the most common presentation of asymptomatic lung cancer is indeed a solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN), but for most symptomatic lung cancers the nodule is at least 3 cm in diameter at the time of initial diagnosis. The author does a good job of providing documentation to refute one of his critical hypotheses, which indicates that "neoplasm can often be strongly suspected or excluded based on the radiologic characteristics of the single pulmonary nodule."

BETHESDA, Md--Between 1960 and 1990, there has been a greater than 400% increase in deaths from lung cancer in women. "Women now account for about 45% of all new cases of lung cancer, a proportion that was only about 20% to 25% in the 1970s," said James Jett, MD, co-director of the Lung Cancer Program at the University of Pittsburgh.

In the United States, an estimated 178,000 new cases of lung cancer will occur in 1997, accounting for 13% of cancer diagnoses and 29% of all cancer deaths.[1] The majority of these deaths will be due to metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. Cisplatin (Platinol), vindesine (Eldisine), vinblastine, ifosfamide (Ifex), and mitomycin (Mutamycin) demonstrate response rates of 15% or higher in previously untreated patients (Table 1)