5 Things Women Need to Know About Lung Cancer

Can you name the leading cause of cancer deaths among women? 

It’s not breast cancer, as you may think. Rather, lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths in U.S. women. In fact, lung cancer causes more deaths than colon, breast and pancreatic cancer combined. While the disease is on the decline among men, diagnosis and death rates in women continue to rise. Consider these important facts:

1. You can get lung cancer even if you’ve never smoked.

In a recent American Lung Association survey, half of the women said they weren’t concerned about lung cancer since they had successfully quit smoking or never smoked at all. Yes, smoking is the biggest risk factor. But 1 in 10 cases occur in people who have never smoked a day in their lives, and as many as 24,000 of them die every year. Female nonsmokers stand a greater risk than males who don’t smoke.

2. It can strike at any age.

In the same survey, many women in their 20s and early 30s said they were too young to be concerned about lung cancer. While the disease does most often strike between ages 55 and 65, there’s no lower limit on new diagnoses. Women younger than age 45 are more likely than men of the same age to develop the disease.

3. Women with lung cancer often face a grim prognosis.

Lung cancer that spreads to the rest of the body is difficult to control. Sadly, less than half of women whose doctors tell them they have lung cancer are alive one year later. One reason lung cancer survival rates are so low is because you can have it for a long time without knowing it. Lung cancer can cause a chronic cough, hoarse voice, shortness of breath, constant chest pain, and coughing up blood.

4. You might need to ask your doctor about screening.

For some people at high risk, a CT (computed tomography) scan may detect lung cancer early and reduce their risk of dying from lung cancer. If you are a current or former smoker or you have symptoms of lung cancer, ask your doctor having a screening test. 

5. Your healthcare team can guide you through treatment. 

Statistics may be sobering, but they aren’t definite. About 400,000 people are currently living with lung cancer. Every day, healthcare providers help women fight this disease. Surgeons and oncologists may suggest operations, medications, radiation, or a combination therapy. They may also help you enroll in a clinical trial, where you can get access to cutting-edge new treatments for the disease.

https://www.healthgrades.com/right-care/cancer/5-things-women-need-to-know-about-lung-cancer?cid=63emsh

Why One Woman With Lung Cancer Photographed Herself Every Day For A Year

The Huffington Post  |  By Erin Schumaker

Posted: 02/24/2015 8:19 am EST Updated: 3 hours ago

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In 2013, Jennifer Glass was diagnosed with stage IIIB lung cancer. To help document her life, she took a photo every day and then, in March 2014, she set it to music and uploaded it to YouTube. Since then, the video has been viewed more than 345,000 times, by people around the world. This is her story.

How It Happened: The day I was diagnosed, it was a Saturday. The doctor called us at home and initially he said, 'You have stage IV lung cancer.' We didn’t know if it had spread to my brain and my bones. We didn’t know a lot. We just knew we were going to be in for a rough ride.

The first several months were really just about getting through the treatment. I lost my hair. I felt crummy. I didn’t think so much about what was going to happen in the long term. I just wanted to do the treatment and then find out where we were. At the end of the treatment, the tests showed that it had been effective. The tumors had shrunk. Then I went on this drug that had really profound side effects. If you saw in the video, I had a terrible facial rash. That’s one of the common side effects of that drug at the high dose. It was a few months while we played with the dose and found a way for me to tolerate it.

The turning point was really after that. Once the tests started to come back, it showed that it was going to be okay, at least for a little while. I’m not going to die this year. I had to start thinking a little bit beyond 'What do I do today for my treatment?' and start thinking, 'How do I use my time effectively -- the time that I have left?'

All of this is finding a balance between being hopeful and being accepting. Finding a balance between the very short-term view of 'Am I going to die in six months? Am I going to have a year? Two years? Five years?' You make different decisions. You make different plans. If you have a very short-term view, it’s easy to prioritize things.

When I was in the middle of my treatment, it was really easy for me to not sweat the small stuff. I was very focused on getting through and appreciating my family and telling people I loved them. When you start to feel better, the minutia creeps back. Now I’m crabby when the cable guy is late. Little things like that. But that indicates a return to normalcy.

How I Coped: The night I was diagnosed, I was getting ready for bed and taking my makeup off and looking in the mirror and I had this really strong thought: 'What am I going to see in the mirror this year? What is going to happen to my body?' I said to my husband, 'Harlan, I’d like you to take my picture tonight. And I think I want to do this every day. I want to chronicle what happens to me.' And so that’s how it started. I didn’t know what I would do with it. I just had a sense that I wanted a record of it.

We kept up with it and at the end of the year I had this visual story that was told with pictures. My brother wrote the song that’s on the video, and that was the trigger that made me think, 'I could put the pictures to his words.'

I was really overwhelmed by the response. A lot of the responses I get, the comments, are from people battling illness, but I’d say just as many are from friends or family members (and this is not just the video, but also my blog), people saying, 'You really helped me understand what my father or friend is going through. You helped us have a conversation we didn’t know how to have before.' Even though the song is in English, I’ve gotten an extraordinary response from around the world, in every language -- from Africa to Europe to Latin America.

Where I Stand: Just to be specific about the status of my illness, [being called] a survivor is a little optimistic still, at this point. I have cancer and it’s too soon to say it’s in remission, though the chemo and radiation I had and the medication I’m on is keeping it contained. It’s not spreading, but I’m still actively being treated. It’s been a year and a half now of no growth. I get tested every few months and we take it one day at a time.

My husband and I were just married when this hit, and so the first year of our marriage was all about cancer. Now we are spending our time being married. We are taking trips we wanted to take. I wouldn’t say I have a bucket list. I’ve lived a really full life I’m proud of. But we’re not putting things off. If there’s something we want to do, we do it. We spend our time together. I spend time with my step kids. I really make time for my friends.

What I Learned: Looking back at it, the most debilitating thing about a life-threatening illness is often the fear that comes with it more than the reality of the illness. People said, 'Oh, you’re going to beat this thing. You’re fearless. You’re fearless.' Well, of course, I’m not fearless, but I have found ways to fear less. If you can take fear out the equation at all, even a little bit, you can think more clearly. You make better decisions and with luck, you can find a path to peace -- some way to balance hope and acceptance.

There’s a difference between extending life and prolonging the dying process. I’m doing everything I can to extend my life. What I take issue with, is that I don’t feel that anyone else should have the right to prolong my death. I am at peace with the idea that my life is going to end. But how it ends is very frightening to me if lung cancer runs its course.

That’s why I’ve been so active and vocal about bringing end-of-life legislation to California and more broadly throughout the country. I think a lot now about quality of life, and that has to include end-of-life. If I knew I had options and didn’t have to worry about what was going to happen in those final weeks and days, my quality of life would be better. I would be able to live more joyfully and more peacefully, not having to worry about how it was going to end.

As told to Erin Schumaker. This email and interview have been edited for length and clarity.

Jennifer Glass is a writer, speaker and advocate for aid in dying. See more atjenglass.com.

Do you have a story about cancer and emotional wellness you'd like to share? Email us at healthyliving@huffingtonpost.com to share your thoughts in your own words. Please be sure to include your name and phone number.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/24/living-with-lung-cancer_n_6706658.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

Panel backs lung cancer screening for some smokers

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FILE - In a June 3, 2010, file photo, Dr. Steven Birnbaum works with a patient in a CT scanner at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua, N.H. For the first time, government advisers are recommending screening for lung cancer, saying certain current and former smokers should get annual scans to cut their chances of dying of the disease. Reports on the screening were published Monday, July 29, 2013, in Annals of Internal Medicine. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)

 

Marilynn Marchione, AP Chief Medical Writer 17 hours agoHealthLung cancerProstate cancerOvarian cancerTask forceCancer

For the first time, government advisers are recommending screening for lung cancer, saying certain current and former heavy smokers should get annual scans to cut their chances of dying of the disease.

If it becomes final as expected, the advice by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force would clear the way for insurers to cover CT scans, a type of X-ray, for those at greatest risk.

That would be people ages 55 through 79 who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years or the equivalent, such as two packs a day for 15 years. Whether screening would help younger or lighter smokers isn't known, so scans are not advised for them. They also aren't for people who quit at least 15 years ago, or people too sick or frail to undergo cancer treatment.

"The evidence shows we can prevent a substantial number of lung cancer deaths by screening" — about 20,000 of the 160,000 that occur each year in the United States, said Dr. Michael LeFevre, a task force leader and family physician at the University of Missouri.

Public comments will be taken until Aug. 26, then the panel will give its final advice. Reports on screening were published Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The recommendation is a big deal for many reasons. The task force, an independent group of doctors appointed by the government, in recent years has urged less frequent screening for breast and cervical cancers, and no screening for prostate cancer, saying PSA blood tests do men more harm than good. There are no good ways to screen for ovarian cancer or other less common types.

But lung cancer is the top cancer killer worldwide. Nearly 90 percent of people who get it die from it, usually because it's found too late for treatment to succeed. About 85 percent of lung cancers in the U.S. are attributable to smoking, and about 37 percent of U.S. adults are current or former smokers. The task force estimates that 10 million Americans would fit the smoking and age criteria for screening.

The American Cancer Society used to recommend screening with ordinary chest X-rays but withdrew that advice in 1980 after studies showed they weren't saving lives. Since then, CT scans have come into wider use, and the society and other groups have endorsed their limited use for screening certain heavy smokers.

The scans cost $100 to as much as $400 and are not usually covered by Medicare or private insurers now. But under the new health care law, cancer screenings recommended by the task force are to be covered with no copays.

"It's generally going to be covered by all health plans" if the advice gets final task force approval, said Susan Pisano of the industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans. She said her group may develop a response during the public comment period but has had "high regard" for the task force in the past "because they rely so heavily on the evidence" in crafting their recommendations.

The task force considered lung cancer screening in 2004 but said there was too little evidence to weigh risks and benefits. Since then, a major study found that screening the age group covered in the task force's recommendation could cut the chances of dying from lung cancer by up to 20 percent and from any cause by nearly 7 percent.

Screening "is absolutely not for everybody," not even all smokers, LeFevre stressed. That includes President Barack Obama, who said a couple years ago that he had quit smoking. Obama is too young (he will turn 52 in a few days) and too light a smoker (he reportedly smoked less than a pack a day), to be in the high-risk group advised to get screening.

The potential benefits of screening may not outweigh its possible harms for people not at high risk of developing lung cancer. A suspicious finding on a scan often leads to biopsies and other medical tests that have costs and complications of their own. The radiation from scans to look for cancer can raise the risk of developing the disease.

"These scans uncover things, often things that are not important. But you don't figure out that for a while," and only after entering "the medical vortex" of follow-up tests, said Dr. Peter Bach, a cancer screening expert at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

The best way to prevent lung cancer is to quit smoking or never start, and screening doesn't make smoking safer, doctors stress.

"That's everyone's public health concern: People will see this as a pass to continue smoking," Bach said of screening. "I don't think it's likely," because people know how harmful smoking is, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/panel-backs-lung-cancer-screening-210228577.html

Inhalable drug delivery provides new approach to lung cancer treatment

By Darren Quick

May 23, 2013

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The Nanostructured Lipid Carrier (NLC) that can be inhaled to deliver an anticancer drug directly to the lungs (Image: Oregon State University)

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According to American Cancer Society estimates, lung cancer will account for 27 percent of all US cancer deaths in 2013, making it by far the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. Part of the problem is getting the toxic chemotherapeutic drugs used to treat the cancer into the lungs. A new drug delivery system aims to overcome this problem by allowing the drugs to be inhaled, thereby delivering the drug where it is needed while reducing the harmful effects to other organs.

The new treatment developed by researchers from Oregon State University (OSU), Rutgers University and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey uses nanoparticles as a drug carrier to transport the anticancer drugs directly into the lungs. These “nanostructured lipid nanocarriers” readily attach to cancer cells and are smaller than a speck of dust so can be easily inhaled.

As well as a payload of chemotherapeutic drugs, the nanoparticles also carry small interfering RNA (siRNA). This is a molecule that helps control and repress certain genes and makes the cancer cells more vulnerable by helping to eliminate both “pump” resistance, where the drugs are expelled from the cancer cell interior, and “non-pump” resistance, which keeps the cancer cell from dying.

“Lung cancer damage is usually not localized, which makes chemotherapy an important part of treatment,” said Oleh Taratula, an assistant professor in the OSU College of Pharmacy and co-author on the study. “However, the drugs used are toxic and can cause organ damage and severe side effects if given conventionally through intravenous administration.

Inhalation of the chemotherapeutic agents also ensures they arrive in more intact form than conventional intravenous delivery, in which the drugs tend to accumulate in the liver, kidney and spleen before they can make it to the site of the cancer. In the researcher’s study, the amount on the drug delivered to the lungs increased from 23 percent with injection, to 83 percent using the inhalation approach.

“A drug delivery system that can be inhaled is a much more efficient approach, targeting just the cancer cells as much as possible,” said Taratula. “Other chemotherapeutic approaches only tend to suppress tumors, but this system appears to eliminate it.” The researchers have applied for a patent for the inhalation technology, but say more testing will be required before moving onto human clinical trials.

The study appears in the Journal of Controlled Release and can be downloaded from OSU.

Source: Oregon State University

http://www.gizmag.com/inhalation-chemotherapeutic-drug-lung-cancer/27640/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=26cddbd58c-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-26cddbd58c-90055698

What does it mean if my lung cancer does not have a ALK or EGFR mutation? Are there other mutations as well?

What does it mean if my lung cancer does not have a ALK or EGFR mutation? Are there other mutations as well?

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NathanPennellMDPhD (Physician - Oncology - Hematology/Oncology (Verified) ) - 01 / 30 / 2013

This is a very exciting time to be a lung cancer researcher, as the understanding of the molecular causes of lung cancer is growing very quickly. We now know that about 10% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases contain a mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, while another 4% or so contain an altered gene called EML4-ALK. These are commonly tested for because there are now drugs that work very well, better than traditional chemotherapy, in patients whose tumors contain these targets.

However, 85% of NSCLC patients will not have either of these targets and are usually treated with standard combination chemotherapy. Of course, EGFR and ALK are simply the first 2 genetic targets that have approved drugs, not the only potential targets out there. A recent study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting showed that about 60% of NSCLC patients actually have a specific genetic change that might be treatable with a specific targeted drug, and clinical trials are underway to develop more targeted drugs for these patients. Ultimately, most patients will eventually be treated with personalized therapy based upon the genetic vulnerabilities of their cancer. In 2013 the best option, in my opinion, is to try and enroll on a clinical trial if one is available near the patient's home and specific for their type of lung cancer. Only through research studies will true personalized treatment become a reality.

http://talkabouthealth.com/what-does-it-mean-if-my-lung-cancer-does-not-have-a-alk-or-egfr-mutation-are-there-other-mutations-as-well