Lung Cancer / Mesothelioma
Last week, Genentech had a press release in which they disclosed some potentially important information about a large randomized trial being done in Europe with Avastin. This study, known as the AVAIL trial, enrolled just over a thousand first-line patients with advanced NSCLC to receive their most common standard chemotherapy, cisplatin and gemcitabine, alone […]
4 CommentsI’m just coming from a meeting on Targeted Therapies in the Treatment of Lung Cancer, which had the interesting format of dozens of 5-minute presentations just introducing or giving a very brief update of many new therapies. Some of these, such as the EGFR monoclonal antibody Erbitux (cetixumab), which I spoke on, have been […]
0 CommentsWhen is surgery necessary or just particularly helpful for bone metastases? There are situations in which invasive approaches may be appropriate for the long bones (of the arms and legs). First, surgery can be helpful for persistent or increasing pain despite completing palliative radiation therapy. It is also an attractive option for a single […]
2 CommentsWe’ve established that bone metastases are common, and now we’ll talk about approaches to manage pain that often accompanies them. As I mentioned previously, sometimes a metastases occurs in a weight-bearing bone, in which case we often recommend a prophylactic surgical procedure to stabilize the bone at risk for fracture. Radiation can also reduce the […]
6 CommentsI’ve discussed the general management of metastatic lung cancer, both SCLC and NSCLC, but there are also several common complications that sometimes require particular management. Bone metastases, for instance, may be treated by the same “whole body” approach with chemotherapy that treats other areas of tumor involvement, but may also benefit from additional approaches. Bone metastases are common […]
14 CommentsIn light of a growing focus on the issue of lung cancer in never-smokers, it makes sense to try to identify potential causes in this population. Among the leading candidates as a cause of lung cancer in never-smokers is secondhand, or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure. This potential cause was identified more than 25 years […]
2 CommentsMy good friend Heather Wakelee, along with her colleagues at Stanford, just published an important study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on the incidence of lung cancer among never-smokers, essentially the first and most comprehensive work defining the magnitude of the problem. I’ve mentioned that never-smokers with lung cancer are a particular interest of […]
0 CommentsWhile lobectomy or pneumonectomy may be the surgical treatment of choice for most NSCLC tumors in younger, fit patients, a limited resection may be an ideal choice in certain settings. In my previous post I discussed the data supporting a limited resection in older patients, who are likely to have competing health risks that […]
2 CommentsWhile the prevailing standard of care for resectable lung cancer is a lobectomy or pneumonectomy, we want the surgery to be as appropriate as possible for patients. That means not short-changing patients by doing a lesser surgery than they need to do as well as possible with the cancer, but also not overtreating patients […]
0 CommentsSurgery is the standard treatment for early stage lung cancer, sometimes also including other types of threrapy in addition. There are many types of lung cancer surgery, and there is still active debate about whether a pneumonectomy or lobectomy should be the preferred surgery for lung cancer, or whether a sub-lobar resection, either a […]
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