It is not enough to stop smoking to prevent lung cancer, resist cigarettes is a good start but to cleanse the lungs completely from the effects of smoking we have to wait 10 to 15 years. At the Congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held in Orlando (May 2009), many experts gathered to witness the presentation of clinical results for new therapies against cancer. Several sessions related to their lung cancer, currently the leading cause of death in industrialized countries (daily, all over the world, there are approximately 3,000 deaths from lung cancer).
Annually, new cases of lung cancer diagnosed 1.5 million, 35,000 in Italy alone. Unfortunately, unlike other cancers, data on lung cancer survival are far from encouraging, 80 percent of patients do not survive and the 5-year survival is 14 percent. In 85 percent of cases are non-small cell cancers, whereas more than 90 percent of these patients are diagnosed in smokers, we understand the importance of information campaigns against smoking.
Orlando does not arrive, however, only negative news. Two molecules, bevacizumab and erlotinib, have proved effective against lung cancer by increasing the survival of patients. As part of the ATLAS trial, currently in phase III, it was observed that in patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated with the two molecules can block the progression of the disease. Efficacy of Erlotinib is also demonstrated by another phase III study, Saturn.
Federico Cappuzzo, a researcher at the Istituto Clinico Humanitas IRCCS, Milan and manager of the SATURN study, explains that the results obtained in the two studies are very important because the lengthening of the time the patient alive without disease progression is a key objective for the treatment of this malignancy. The expert ear thanks to the combined action of two molecules block the supply to the tumor by intervening in a targeted way, a great result considering that patients treated in the tests have received an increase of 39 per cent of survival without progression of disease compared to those treated only with bevacizumab.
Further progress not only in the treatment of lung cancer but also in the diagnosis, at the ASC were also presented the results of a test for chemotherapy that helps you identify which patients will respond better to chemotherapy.
In conclusion oncologists emphasize that prevention remains the first place, in 9 cases out of 10 cigarette smoking is the cause of occurrence of lung cancer.
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