Decision Resources, one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Merck KGaA/Oncothyreon’s Stimuvax vaccine earns Decision Resources’ proprietary clinical gold standard status in 2013 and 2018 for the treatment of locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. Available data from Phase II clinical trials of Stimuvax have shown promising median overall survival and tumor response rates in patients when the drug is used as a maintenance therapy following chemoradiotherapy…

Rapid advances in drug development, genetics and multidisciplinary treatment have brought the field of oncology to a critical moment, says Dr. Rafael Rosell from the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Badalona, Spain, co-chair of the second European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC), which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 28 April to 1 May 2010. More than 1,500 delegates are expected at the conference, which is a joint initiative of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)…

Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ: SNTA), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing small molecule drugs to treat severe medical conditions, today announced that Dr. Geoffrey I. Shapiro of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, presented preclinical and clinical data on STA-9090, a potent second-generation Hsp90 inhibitor, at IASLC (International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer) 10th Annual Targeted Therapies of the Treatment of Lung Cancer Meeting in Santa Monica, CA…

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found that PKC-iota (PKCι), an oncogene important in colon and lung cancers, is over-produced in pancreatic cancer and is linked to poor patient survival. They also found that genetically inhibiting PKCι in laboratory animals led to a significant decrease in pancreatic tumor growth and spread. The discovery, reported in the March 1 issue of Cancer Research, is especially encouraging, they say, because an experimental agent that targets PKCι is already being tested in patients at Mayo Clinic…

Weighing both magnitude of survival benefit and expense, scientists observed that the drug erlotinib, which was found to improve overall survival by 2 months in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, is marginally cost-effective. The results of their economic analysis using clinical trial data were reported in a newly released study published online February 16 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute…….

Weighing both magnitude of survival benefit and expense, researchers found that the drug erlotinib, which was found to improve overall survival by 2 months in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, is marginally cost-effective. The results of their economic analysis using clinical trial data were reported in a new study published online February 16 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Natasha B. Leighl, M.D., of the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada, and colleagues performed an analysis of erlotinib treatment in the NCIC Clinical Trials Group BR…

Research published in February’s edition of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology investigates the utilization of surgery and the subsequent need for radiotherapy (RT) when treating stage I small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Traditionally, SCLC treatment regimes include chemotherapy and radiotherapy for limited stage disease; however, the study concludes that in selected patients with early stage disease a lobectomy (removal of lung) had an excellent overall survival without additional treatment…

Combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was associated with an increase in the risk of lung cancer of as much as 50% in a study of a large cohort of peri- and postmenopausal women.

Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced that more than 12,000 courses of lung cancer treatment have been completed with CyberKnife radiosurgery. Usage of CyberKnife radiosurgery for lung cancer continues to grow, as illustrated by a 25 percent increase year over year in calendar year 2009. CyberKnife radiosurgery offers lung cancer patients a non-invasive means for treating their disease. The outpatient treatment is completed in five or fewer visits, and is both painless and non-surgical…

In the USA each year, 200,000 cancer patients suffer from a malignant pleural effusion development of excessive fluid (pleural effusion) in the chest. Several litres of such fluid can accumulate, and many patients suffer from significant breathlessness and distress. One in four patients with lung cancer, one in every three with breast cancer and most of the patients with mesothelioma will develop a malignant effusion. The current strategy is to induce a pleurodesis (seal the pleural cavity with a chemical agent so no fluid can accumulate)…