'Dramatic' Lung Cancer Advance
Advances in lung cancer chemotherapy are dramatically increasing the chances for survival of patients diagnosed early with the disease, reports The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay.
She explains that lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in this country. More than 172,000 people are expected to be diagnosed this year with lung cancer, and more than 163,000 people are expected to die from the disease.
Smoking is by far and away the No. 1 cause of lung cancer, although some people who never smoked get the disease.
Lung cancer is often difficult to treat, because most cases are diagnosed at a later stage of the disease.
About 30 percent of patients are diagnosed at an early stage, when the cancer hasn't spread to other parts of the body and tumors can be surgically removed. After the tumors are removed, chemotherapy is often given to improve the odds of surviving the disease.
"We're talking about early non-small cell lung cancer," Senay told co-anchor Rene Syler. It's the most common type of lung cancer.
The latest research shows that a new generation of chemotherapy drugs improves the survival of patients by 15 percent. The number of patients that survive beyond five years is now 69 percent, compared to 54 percent before.
That, Senay says, is a "dramatic" improvement in treating a disease that was previously very tough to beat with chemotherapy. "This is very important news," Senay observes.These results really provide doctors with a new standard of care, Senay observes. The drugs in different combinations are a powerful new weapon against this deadly disease, and provide hope for tens of thousands of people with lung cancer.
Smokers and former smokers with lung cancer often blame themselves for their disease, and there is a lot of stigma surrounding lung cancer because of the view that it is a self-inflicted illness. The hope is that this positive news will help break through the guilt and negativity that patients feel as they fight the disease. And clearly, chemotherapy is worth the effort. The side effects of the drugs can be difficult to tolerate, but there are drugs to treat some of the side effects and make the experience more bearable.
There are currently no official guidelines for lung cancer screening. Many experts think
Studies will continue on CT scans for lung cancer for years to come. Some doctors are already using them to screen high-risk patients. Talk to your doctor to determine your risk of lung cancer.