Breathe Life Campaign

From the Lung Cancer Foundation Site:

This spring, LCFA is honored to be joining forces with OPI, the well-known nail polish company to introduce a new nail polish called Breathe Life. OPI created Breathe Life especially for LCFA, in order to raise awareness of the difficult fight against Lung Cancer. Not only will OPI be distributing Breathe Life to thousands of its customers nationwide, but the company made a generous donation to LCFA, too.

Please, ask your favorite salons in your area to hold SALON DAYS to bring awareness to Lung Cancer. This can be accomplished in a number of ways. Some call to action ideas:

1. Salons can advertise LUNG CANCER SALON DAYS and display the OPI Lung Cancer display case with the BREATHE LIFE nail lacquer. The displays from OPI brings attention to the disparities surrounding Lung Cancer.
2. Salons can agree to give a percentage to sales from customers who use the BREATHE LIFE color with their manicure to Lung Cancer Foundation of America.
3. Salons can agree to ask customers if they would like to donate $1.00 extra to Lung Cancer research with each purchase of a bottle of BREATHE LIFE to the Lung Cancer Foundation of America.
4. Salons can offer manicures and/or pedicures for lung cancer patients at 50% off when using the BREATHE LIFE nail lacquer, asking for a donation to be made to the Lung Cancer Foundation of America.

Read more here.

Clinical Trial Matching Service‏

I received the following message from the Lung Cancer Alliance via Facebook:

Lung Cancer Alliance and EmergingMed have joined forces to make sure patients diagnosed with lung cancer know all of their treatment options - including clinical trials. The matching service is a pre-screening and referral service that quickly identifies clinical trial options that match each person's specific diagnosis, stage and treatment history.

Our Clinical Trial Specialists are available by telephone to guide patients, families and health care professionals through a search of hundreds of lung cancer studies in the United States and Canada. After the first pre-screening conversation, the same clinical trial specialist will follow-up with you by telephone to make sure:

• trial sites call you back.
• your clinical trial questions are answered.
• you receive detailed study information to share with your medical team.
• you are not alone in the process!

Our service is designed to give you more time to discuss clinical trial options with your medical team, and more time to weigh the risks and benefits of all treatment options.

For more information, call 1-800-698-0931

LCA and 14 Other Lung Cancer Organizations Send Letter to NIH and NCI Requesting $100M for Lung Cancer Research

Follow the link below to read the letter sent to the Acting Director of National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Director of National Cancer Institute (NCI) regarding the increase in funding to NIH through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009:

http://www.lungcanceralliance.org/washingtonbriefNIHNCIletter2_27_09.html

Weekly News for 4/23/09

• Lung cancer vaccine 'extends terminal patients lives'

Terminal lung cancer patients are living longer thanks to the world's first registered lung cancer vaccine, a leading Cuban scientist says.

• Sputum cytology, bronchoscopy practical way to detect early lung cancer: study

Sputum cytology and bronchoscopyexaminations could help detecting early central airway lung cancer, researchers of the University of Hong Kong said here Tuesday.

• Smoking Behavior Partially Explains Socioeconomic Inequities In Lung Cancer Incidence

Europeans with the least education have a higher incidence of lung cancer compared with those with the highest education. However, smoking history accounts for approximately half of this risk, according to a new study.

• American writer John Updike dies

John Updike, the kaleidoscopically gifted writer whose quartet of Rabbit Angstrom novels highlighted so vast and protean a body of fiction, verse, essays and criticism as to earn him comparisons with Henry James and Edmund Wilson among American men of letters, died Tuesday. He was 76 and lived in Beverley Farms. Massachusetts.

The cause of death was lung cancer, his publisher, Knopf, said in a statement.

Look Deeper Public Service Announcement

Weekly News for 4/16/09

• Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Study Shows

The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.

• Second study showed Tarceva with Avastin as first-line maintenance therapy improved progression free survival

“This is the second study to show that people with lung cancer who took the daily pill Tarceva following initial treatment lived longer without their cancer getting worse. We plan to discuss these data with the FDA to determine next steps,” said Hal Barron, M.D., Genentech's senior vice president, development and chief medical officer. “Tumors use different pathways to grow and these results showed that combining medicines targeting two of these pathways instead of one delayed disease progression.”

• As if COPD Isn't Enough - COPD, a Common Risk Factor for Lung Cancer?

Did you know that there is a relationship between COPD and lung cancer? And that this relationship, according to a recent study in the European Respiratory Journal is independent of past smoking history?

• Cat nips owner's lung cancer

Now recovering from surgery to remove cancer from his lung, Adams, 59, is crediting his eight-year-old feline friend Tiger for alerting him and his family doctor to a mass in his lung.

• Lung cancers 'to drop by fifth'

Cancer Research UK analysis suggests that by 2024, 40 per 100,000 people will get the cancer compared with the current rate of 50 per 100,000.

• Health News: Hopes the humble mushroom could stop cancer recurring and stem cells could reverse lung damage
  

In more health stories this week, experts test whether mushrooms could stop cancer coming back and hopes that a new stem cell therapy could reverse a deadly lung disease.

Weekly News for 4/2/09

This morning I did a search via Twitter of posts with the words "Lung Cancer". Below are some highlights of my findings:

• WVU Cancer Center part of national study on new lung cancer drug

"Lung cancer, the deadliest cancer for both men and women, claims more lives than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined. Often the disease does not cause any early symptoms, making diagnosis difficult at a treatable stage. Consequently, more patients are treated for advanced lung cancer than for early stage disease.

The Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at West Virginia University is among 12 facilities nationwide offering a Phase II clinical trial to assess a new combination therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients who have never received chemotherapy."

• On the Path Productions -- Erasing the Stigma of Lung Cancer

"On The Path Productions LLC, a San Francisco health media company, is spreading the word about lung cancer research and its need for funding. In conjunction with the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, On the Path (OPP) has produced and aired the national Life Love & Health: Special Edition program, examining the stigma associated with this so-called "smokers' disease" and how it may be hindering a search for the cure."

• OSI, Genentech Say Cancer Drug’s Benefits Ends Trial
  

"...clinical trial of the drug Tarceva in lung cancer patients was halted early because the treatment significantly extended the time patients lived without their disease worsening. The report sent OSI shares 16 percent higher, the biggest single-day gain in more than four years."

• Regular physical activity linked to better quality of life in early-stage lung cancer survivors
  

"Survey led by Fox Chase Cancer Center researcher shows how moderate exercise a few times a week might improve the mental and physical health of lung cancer survivors..."

• New study aims to boost lung cancer early detection

"An Australian-first research project is hoping the use of a more delicate screening process to help boost early detection of lung cancer."

• Cuba Approves First Therapeutic Vaccine for Lung Cancer

"Cuba has approved what is believed to be the world's first registered lung cancer vaccine and is offering it to Cuban and foreign patients in its hospitals."

• Peregrine Pharmaceuticals' Bavituximab Achieves Primary Endpoint in First Stage of Phase II Lung Cancer Study

"Preliminary Data Show Seven of 17 Evaluable Patients Achieved an Objective Tumor Response by End of Four Treatment Cycles."

• Avastin, Tarceva combo delays lung cancer advance
  

"A late-stage trial found that combining Genentech Inc's (DNA.N) Avastin with cancer pill Tarceva, which is co-marketed with OSI Pharmaceuticals (OSIP.O), extended the time patients with advanced lung cancer lived without the disease getting worse."