AdventHealth Celebration Introduces New Intraoperative Molecular Imaging Process to Improve Accuracy of Lung Cancer Surgery
“Thoracic surgeon Colleen Gaughan, MD, and her team at AdventHealth Celebration, recently became one of the first in the country to incorporate targeted imaging agent Cytalux (pafolacianine) as part of a new intraoperative molecular imaging (IMI) process designed to enhance the accuracy of lung cancer surgeries. This injectable medication, administered up to 24 hours before surgery, binds to cancerous tissue and glows when stimulated by a specialized intraoperative infrared camera, making it easier for the surgeon to accurately visualize and remove tumors while sparing healthy tissue.”
US FDA declines to approve injection form of J&J’s lung cancer drug
“Dec 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has declined to approve an injectable version of Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ.N), opens new tab drug Rybrevant for a type of lung cancer, the drugmaker said on Monday. The FDA’s so-called complete response letter was related to observations as part of a standard pre-approval inspection at a manufacturing facility, J&J said.”
Breathing New Life Into the Lung Cancer Pipeline
“The next two years may well see an explosion of FDA approvals for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with some of the drugs being first-in-class and/or best-in-class. If even a few of these agents make it through the regulatory gauntlet, clinicians will have a powerful new set of therapeutics to combat this challenging malignancy, a pharmaceutical industry analyst predicted at the NASP 2024 Annual Meeting & Expo, in Nashville, Tenn.”
NIH Debunks the Myth: Treatment Isn’t the Only Key to Reducing Cancer Deaths
“A study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has found that improvements in cancer prevention and screening have prevented more deaths from five major cancer types over the past 45 years than advances in treatment. The findings were published on December 5, 2024, in JAMA Oncology.”
What Patients With NSCLC Say About Treatment-Related Toxicities, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring
“It was important to conduct the research because TKIs are “usually well tolerated and used for a prolonged time, although experienced toxicity varies between patients,” and it is “unclear whether patients report all (low grade) toxicities and how these impact their daily lives.””
Cancer survivor’s wife writes book chronicling life saving ‘lungs-in-a-box’ technology
“LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — In April, Keith Zafren shared his cancer journey with LEX 18, chronicling a long battle with the disease before a risky lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine. Now, Zafren is going on a year and a half cancer free, and his wife Lori has written a book to help other families navigate lung cancer.”
Ten Years of Advances: The Story of an ALK-Positive Lung Cancer Survivor
“When Melanie Morrill turned 50 in August of 2014, she was excited to celebrate the milestone birthday and was looking forward to what the next decade would bring. Unfortunately, things changed quickly later that month after a visit to the Emergency Department. Melanie had been experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath and was treated for pneumonia and told to follow-up with her primary care doctor, which she did in September. From there she was referred to a pulmonologist for further testing and in November she received a diagnosis: ALK+ Metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).”
Lung Cancer Patient Story: Multidisciplinary Expertise Backed by Cutting-edge Treatment
“”I always start my story with, ‘A funny thing happened on the way to Japan,'” said Flora McCoy-Greene. The then 67-year-old retiree was exploring a move from Massachusetts to Florida when she got a call from an international school in Japan. One of their teachers had fallen ill. The school’s director wanted to know if Flora could fill in for awhile. Flora had taught overseas before and was thrilled at the chance to do it again. But first, she would need to have a complete physical examination, as the school required. The ensuing exam included a chest X-ray. Flora’s primary care doctor reviewed the scan and concluded she might have lung cancer. She was shocked, as she had no symptoms. “I call the director of the school ‘John the Angel’ because had he not offered me the job, I wouldn’t have gotten the chest X-ray that saved my life,” Flora said.”
Radiology Partners study unearths 3 common barriers to lung cancer screening
“New research from Rad Partners practice affiliate Desert Radiology has unearthed three common barriers keeping patients from undergoing lung cancer screening. Numerous studies have charted poor adherence to low-dose CT, with uptake rates as low as 0.7% in some states. The Las Vegas-based practice and Mountain View Hospital aimed to better understand the reasons why. They administered a questionnaire to 300 high-risk patients in southern Nevada during their screening visits, sharing the results in Cancer Epidemiology. Absence of symptoms (38%), not wishing to know that they have cancer (30%) and lack of awareness about their eligibility for imaging (24%) were the top 3 answers, RP experts noted.”
Lung Cancer Drug Osimertinib Tied to Cardiac Events, Even in Low-Risk Patients
“The non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) drug osimertinib (Tagrisso) was associated with an increased risk of therapy-related cardiovascular (CV) events compared with older EGFR inhibitors, a retrospective cohort study from Taiwan found. In a matched analysis of 401 patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC, therapy-related CV events occurred in 14.9% of those who received the third-generation EGFR inhibitor over nearly 2 years of median follow-up, as compared with 4.4% of those treated with earlier-generation agents, reported Chien-Chung Lin, MD, PhD, of National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, and colleagues.”
PROSPECT-Lung trial aims to improve treatment for patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer
“The highly anticipated PROSPECT-Lung trial has officially opened, marking a significant step forward in the quest to improve treatment strategies for patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer. The trial, which is the first to open through the newly formed National Cancer Institute (NCI) Clinical Trials Innovation Unit (CTIU), aims to evaluate the role of immunotherapy before and after surgery in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.”
