Cancer Research Lab

Surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer can have a substantial impact on long-term health-related quality of life, results of a study published in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggest.

“Although surgery for early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is known to have a substantial impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), there are few published studies about HRQOL in the longer term,” Dr. Patricia Kenny, of the University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and colleagues write.

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Although screening with low-dose CT may increase detection of lung cancer, it does not lead to a meaningful reduction in deaths from the malignancy, new research suggests. As such, further studies are needed to determine whether CT screening for lung cancer should become standard practice.

CT screening of current and former smokers is used at a number of centers based on the belief that such screening will catch lung cancer at an early, more curable stage. However, there are limited data to support that screening actually improves outcomes.

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The findings from a new study suggest that exposure to a bacterial endotoxin, found in raw cotton fiber and dust, confers protection against lung cancer in textile workers.

An association between textile jobs and a reduced lung cancer risk was first noted in the 1970s. The endotoxin was thought to mediate this effect by altering the innate and acquired immune systems. However, data examining the effect of endotoxin exposure on lung cancer risk have been lacking.

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Following induction chemotherapy for patients with stage IIIA-N2 non-small-cell lung cancer, radiation therapy rather than surgery should be considered the preferred locoregional treatment, according to investigators in Europe.

Dr. Jan P. van Meerbeeck, from University Hospital Ghent in Belgium, and his associates studied 332 patients with stage IIIA-N2 cancer who responded to three cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients were randomly assigned to radiotherapy (n = 165) or to surgery (n = 167).

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Annual computed tomographic (CT) screening for lung cancer resulted in identification of a high proportion of patients with early-stage disease, researchers report in the April issue of Radiology

Principal investigator Dr. Claudia I. Henschke said that when conducting such screening “it is important to follow a well-defined and well-tested algorithm — or approach — which defines who needs further workup and what and when that workup should be done.”

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CT-guided lung tumor radiofrequency ablation shows promise in older patients who have refused or who were not candidates for surgery, researchers report in the April issue of Radiology.

“Since many patients in our study had no other treatment options,” researcher Dr. Damian E. Dupuy said, “our results show the utility of lung radiofrequency ablation for this group of elderly sick people.”

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In the absence of new therapies, sequential cisplatin-based treatment appears to be a useful option in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to Italian researchers.

“While waiting for a tailored, more rational approach to lung cancer treatment,” lead researcher Dr. Anna Ceribelli said, “we believe that empirical strategies using chemotherapeutic drugs are still a reasonable alternative for patients with advanced NSCLC.”

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Incidentally detected lung cancers tend to be smaller and less likely to require removal of a lung, according to a research team at the University of California-San Francisco.

Incidental identification of lung tumors will be more common as imaging for coronary screening, pulmonary embolism, aortic disease, and abdominal pain increases, the investigators note.

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Overdiagnosis is common in computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening, according to a report in the February issue of Radiology.

“Screening high-risk patients with chest CT may result in lung cancer overdiagnosis, especially in women,” Dr. Rebecca M. Lindell from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota said.

Dr. Lindell and associates evaluated the size, morphology, location, morphologic change, and growth rate of new and existing lung cancers detected in high-risk individuals who underwent annual screening chest CT for 5 years.

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Findings from a new study confirm that lung cancer in people who have never smoked is more common in women than in men.

“With lung cancer persisting as the leading cause of cancer mortality in the US, research into the epidemiology of lung cancer in never smokers should be an important public health priority,” Dr. Heather A. Wakelee, from Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues emphasize in their report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology for February 10.

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