Industry News
Treatments Promise Hope for Lung Cancer Patients
December 3, 2018
Learn More About the #1 Deadliest Cancer
Each year, lung cancer takes more lives than breast, prostate and colon cancers — combined. Here in California, more than 12,000 people will die from lung cancer annually. According to the American Lung Association:
- More than 200,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2018.
- Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in the U.S.
- More than 154,000 people in the U.S. will die this year from lung cancer. 30,000 of those individuals never smoked.
- 80% of lung cancer deaths are due to smoking.
- More than half of people with lung cancer die within one year of being diagnosed.
- Only 18% of those diagnosed with lung cancer survive another five years.
- The National Institutes of Health estimate that cancer care cost the U.S. an overall $147.5 billion in 2015, $13.4 billion of which is due to lung cancer.
- Lost productivity due to early death from cancer lead to an additional $134.8 billion in 2005, $36.1 billion of which was caused by lung cancer.
Public education efforts are essential in fighting this deadly disease. It’s important now more than ever for everyone to know the causes, risk factors and symptoms of lung cancer so that steps can be taken to protect ourselves and our family and friends. Learn more about lung cancer by visiting: www.lung.org or www.cancer.org.
Promising Treatments Give Hope to Lung Cancer Patient
Lung cancer kills about 1.6 million people worldwide each year. The often-fatal disease is difficult to detect in the early stages and hard to treat as it progresses. These factors have made it the leading cause of cancer death among men and women.
Conventional lung cancer treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Since lung cancer symptoms often remain hidden, the majority of lung cancer patients are diagnosed with advanced disease and unfortunately, conventional treatment options are unlikely to result in complete cures, though they may significantly improve survival and provide symptom relief.
But there is hope, especially for patients who experience the most common form of lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for about 85 percent of all lung cancer cases. At least six FDA-approved treatments are providing long-awaited options for certain lung cancer patients These biotech-based immunotherapies used alone or in combination with conventional treatments are significantly improving patient outcomes.
Treatments like Pfizer’s Lorbrena, Vizimpro and Xalkori have been developed to attack tumor cells that have mutated genes; inhibit tumor mutations that may drive resistance to treatment; and therapies which target abnormalities that prevent the body’s immune T-cells from attacking tumors.
Research is also underway to find new ways to detect lung cancer and monitor it as it progresses.
Learn more at: www.curetoday.com/publications/cure/2017/lung-2-2017/approaching-lung-cancer-with-precision