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Breakthrough therapies-Lung Cancer

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Diagnosing and Treating Your Specific Type of Lung Cancer May be the Path to Longer Overall Survival, Fewer Side Effects, or Both-

While breast and prostate cancer are diagnosed more often in the U.S. each year, lung cancer (LC) is the most deadly. “Lung cancer causes more deaths than the next three most common cancers combined (colon, breast and prostate). An estimated 160,340 Americans were expected to die from lung cancer in 2012, accounting for approximately 28 percent of all cancer deaths. (ACS).” Consider breakthrough therapies for lung cancer.

 

However, this may be changing. The articles linked below use words like “revolutionary,” “game changing” and “breakthrough” to describe lung cancer therapies being developed in the United States in the past decade.

Make no mistake, lung cancer in all its forms and genetic variations is a complicated cancer. Therapies must be  more personal and therefore require elaborate diagnostic testing. But there is hope for the lung cancer patient.

Your challenge is to know what you don’t know. That’s where I come in. I am a survivor of a different yet equally challenging cancer. I work with cancer patients to identify both conventional and non-conventional therapies and beyond…

To Learn More About Lung Cancer- click now

Have you been diagnosed with lung cancer? What stage? What therapies are you considering? Scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

Thank you,

David Emerson

  • Cancer Survivor
  • Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Recommended Reading:


New Kit Predicts Most Common Lung Cancer Survival

“This genetic test is the result of a joint research of Computational Intelligence Group of the Department of Artificial Intelligence of the UPM with the Molecular Oncology Unit of the CIEMAT. This test would enhance patients’ quality of life for those who have a good prognosis by avoiding chemotherapy as well as being a cost saving for hospitals.”

Gene Breakthroughs Spark a Revolution in Cancer Treatment

“Ms. Carey has one of at least 15 LC variations, almost all of which scientists didn’t know existed 10 years ago. Researchers have identified those variations, most of them in just the past four years, by decoding DNA in tumors—akin to how crime labs analyze DNA to genetically fingerprint suspects…

The newfound variants have led major cancer centers to revamp their approach to treating cancer and have spurred a rush among drug companies to find medicines that narrowly target each one. The drugs don’t cure cancer and face significant hurdles. But doctors now talk of a “precision medicine” approach in which those pinpoint drugs can treat tumors far more effectively than catchall chemotherapy.”

New Immunotherapy Could Be ‘Game Changer’ in NSCLC

“A new immunotherapy, MPDL3280A (under development by Genentech), has shown impressive results in a small group of patients with heavily pretreated nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who were taking part in a phase 1 clinical trial.

All but 1 of the 53 NSCLC patients responded, and the responses are “outstandingly durable,” Responses were higher in patients who were smokers than in nonsmokers — the first time that this has been seen with any therapy…”

 

 

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6 comments
Integrative Lung Cancer Therapies - PeopleBeatingCancer says 9 months ago

[…] Breakthrough therapies-Lung Cancer  […]

Reply
Ripley says 4 years ago

Hello David. I wish I had run across this site earlier, hopefully it’s still up and running. Diagnosed with adenocarcinoma in August 2019. One tumor at 4.2 cm located in inferior lobe of right lung. Four treatments with carboplatin and pemetrexed with 3 weeks between each treatment. The tumor shrunk to 3.4 cm after two treatments and to 3.2 after the second two treatments. I am scheduled to have the lobe removed this week. I only recently started using a curcumin supplement though I have been plant based and seasoning with turmeric for about 4 months. Thanks for any input you can offer.

Reply
    David Emerson says 4 years ago

    Hi Ripley-

    I am sorry to read of your diagnosis. Several things to consider. First and foremost, please “pre-habilitate” before your lung surgery this week. Even if you don’t have much time, eat cleanly, supplement, get exercise, sleep, etc.

    Secondly, will you undergo more chemotherapy after your surgery? If so consider integrative therapies. For example, curcumin has been shown to enhance the efficacy of specific chemotherapies.

    Are you considering any other therapies? What was your stage at diagnosis?

    Let me know, thanks.

    David Emerson

    Reply
Ian Koo says 8 years ago

Thanks for reaching out, David.

Happy to hear of your success story and interested to get your thoughts. Some answers to your questions:

1) My mother was diagnosed on Sept 11 (ominous date) this year with stage 3B lung cancer

2) Initially she had an ongoing cough that several cycles of antibiotics didn’t help. Later she had traces of blood in her sputum which prompted the doctors to do scans and further testing

3) Her age is 69 and otherwise healthy. No allergies (food or otherwise), keeps reasonably active and no diabetes or heart issues. Has mild osteoporosis which I believe is common in Chinese women.

Just finished her first round of radiation therapy and chemo a few weeks ago and is in the assessment stage now. She is also set to participate in a trial for an immunotherapy treatment which will last a year. We luckily have a family friend who is very well regarded in the field of lung cancer research and was strongly recommended by her to participate in this trial.

Regards,

Reply
    David Emerson says 8 years ago

    I will be direct. Conventional oncology defines NSCLC stage 3B as having metastasized throughout your mom’s body. Therefore if you pursue conventional therapies your mom’s prognosis for 5 year survival rate is 5%. Nothing that conventional oncology offers is curative. My guess is that the antibiotics delayed a diagnosis of the cancer. Conventional oncology’s method of treatment will be a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. If you pursue these two modalities aggressively then your mom may experience a low quality of life.

    That’s the bad news. The good news is that if your mom qualifies for the immunotherapy trial she should go for it. While those newer chemotherapies are expensive and do bring side effects, if she responds then her five year overall survival odds may improve.

    No matter what conventional therapies your mom pursues I encourage you/her to also pursue anti-cancer antioxidant supplementation, anti-cancer nutrition, frequent, moderate exercise, in short, any and all lifestyle therapies to enhance your mom’s quality of life for as long as possible.

    When I mention antioxidant nutritional supplements I am talking about those supplements that have shown through studies to be cytotoxic to cancer and or to enhance the efficacy of her chemotherapy. As a for instance, a supplement called curcumin enhances the efficacy of platinum based chemotherapies.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=platinum+chemotherapy%2C+curcumin

    In short, I would throw everything you can at stage 3B NSCLC.

    If you would like to know more about integrative therapies (supplementation to enhance chemo and or radiation) I will need to know what chemotherapy your mom may be taking to determine what supplements you need. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions.

    hang in there,

    David Emerson
    PeopleBeatingCancer

    ps- for the record, my cancer, multiple myeloma, is considered to be incurable. My onc. told me I was terminal in ’97. I tried a quack therapy and it worked…

    Stage

    5-year Observed
    Survival Rate

    IIIB

    5%

    http://www.cancer.org/cancer/lungcancer-non-smallcell/detailedguide/non-small-cell-lung-cancer-survival-rates

    Reply
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