Lung Cancer Treatment Breakthroughs

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers. In the United States, lung cancer is one of the most frequent causes of death in both men and women. In general, the majority of lung cancer cases are somehow caused by cigarette smoking (including secondhand smoke). Other causes of lung cancer include exposure to asbestos as well as exposure to high levels of radiation and pollution. There is always medical research being conducted to improve treatment options for curing lung cancer.

Early Detection

• There is no 100 percent reliable early detection tool for spotting lung cancer at an early stage. However, computerized topography (CT) scans are showing great promise. Patients who used this form of detection and were then operated on within a month had an astounding 92 percent survival rate. One problem with CT scans, though, is that they often detect so much detail that they run the risk of showing a lot of false positives.

Milder Surgery

• A Duke University study showed that patients who went through theracoscopic surgery recuperate faster and deal with their lung cancer better than those who undergo more rigorous and stressful lung cancer surgery and chemotherapy treatment. Theracoscopic surgery only entails three tiny incisions and is a much less stressful and taxing surgery than the traditional lung cancer surgery patients go through.

Effective Drugs

• According to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, there has been an increased number of approved medications for lung cancer treatment. One of the new medications with the most potential is one that works on cancerous cells by preventing blood vessels from forming around a tumor. Tumors that do not receive any blood flow cannot grow or spread.

Tumor Fingerprinting

• Understanding the biological differences between different types of tumors has enabled researchers to develop more targeted, focused and effective forms of treatment. According to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, blood tests that could determine a certain gene mutation responded excellently to newly approved lung cancer drugs. This has encouraged the research and development of other helpful predictive tests, including a urine test that helped predict exactly which patients could thrive from COX2 inhibitors in their treatment.

Potential

• With all of the relatively recent breakthroughs for treating lung cancer, the future for the disease seems to be getting more positive, as mortality in men has been decreasing since the early 1990s, and deaths among women with lung cancer is starting to drop (it had been increasing for decades).