Advances In Lung, Testicular Cancer

Main Category: Lung Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 03 Jun 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Two plenary studies and other research evaluating screening and treatment options for patients with lung and testicular cancer released yesterday at a press briefing for the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

"These findings are likely to have a significant impact on the care of patients with these types of cancer," said Howard Sandler, MD, professor in the departments of radiation oncology and urology at the University of Michigan and moderator of the press briefing. "Our goal as physicians and researchers is to catch cancer early, improve survival and enhance quality of life. These studies advance all those aims."

Plenary studies include:

- A study finding that the targeted therapy cetuximab (Erbitux) combined with platinum-based chemotherapy is effective as a first-line treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

- A study showing that a single dose of carboplatin chemotherapy is as effective and less toxic than radiation therapy in preventing recurrence after surgery for early-stage testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in younger men, with 8,000 cases annually.

The press briefing also highlighted other studies on cancer prevention and diagnosis:

- A study evaluating whether celecoxib (Celebrex, a COX-2 inhibitor) is a potential chemopreventive agent for lung cancer in current and former smokers.

- A study assessing whether PET/CT is superior to standard CT for staging disease in patients with lung cancer. Accurate cancer staging is critical to determining whether patients will benefit from surgery.

For consumer-oriented information on these studies and more than 120 cancer types and cancer-related syndromes, please refer your readers to ASCO's oncologist-vetted patient website, http://www.cancer.net.

American Society of Clinical Oncology