Celebrities, new study put spotlight on lung cancer

Research efforts are being launched to try to improve early detection and treatment of the most lethal of cancers.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Sept. 5, 2005.

Washington -- Just as more attention has focused on lung cancer after the death of ABC anchorman Peter Jennings and the diagnosis of actor Christopher Reeve's widow, the National Cancer Institute has released a new research plan to fight the disease.

The plan, released on Aug. 12, hopes to reduce lung cancer rates by 2015. It focuses on:

• Improving smoking cessation rates via new therapies for nicotine addiction and the exploration of the genetics of nicotine addiction and the gene/environment interactions of nicotine dependence.
• Further early detection via proteomic and gene expression technologies and by using tissues from lung cancer cases diagnosed in a separate cancer trial to identify biomarkers.
• Drug development and responses to therapy that will include studying early and pre-cancer microenvironments and focusing on the effects of inflammation, infection and injury on the development of lung cancer.

Several trials are also under way to determine the viability of CT screenings for lung cancer, although the enterprise is controversial.

Studies have shown that although screening can reveal cancer at its earliest and most treatable stage, many benign conditions also are discovered that can prompt unnecessary and costly surgery.

A National Cancer Institute-affiliated cancer center at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, is embarking this fall on a five-year, statewide effort to examine CT scans' screening potential. Current and former smokers who meet the study's qualifications will be given free, annual CT scans.