Buzz About Once-a-Day Pill That Researchers Say Eases Symptoms For Terminally Ill Lung Cancer Patients
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is a lot of buzz about a new once-a-day pill that researchers say eases symptoms for many terminally-ill lung cancer patients, and perhaps even shrinks tumors for some. Our medical correspondent Rea Blakey tracking this from Washington. Rea, interesting stuff here. What are we finding out?</s>REA BLAKEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, if it all plays out, it's huge news for advance lung cancer patients. Even if previous chemotherapy didn't work for them. That's a first. For the time, an oral drug called Iressa has been found to actually shrink tumors in some advance lung cancer patients. This information is out from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and here's how the research shakes out. The researchers looked at 216 patients with advanced lung cancer who were previously treated with at least two different chemotherapy regiments. They found fairly dramatic results for the majority of patients usually within 10 days of starting Iressa. Now, 10 percent of paints had their lung tumors shrink by half or more. Another third of patients had an improvement in symptoms such as shortness of breath, poor appetite and weight loss. Again, the drug itself it called Iressa, once-a-day pill. Now in a separate study, a possible first step toward preventing lung cancer in the high-risk population known as former smokers. Researcher at MD Anderson cancer center in Houston used a randomized placebo-controlled trial to determine that a vitamin a derivative can reverse some precancerous changes in the lung. More study needed on that one, but news about this chemical cousin of vitamin a is significant, because While smoking cessation reduces lung cancer risks, former smokers do, in fact, remain at risk for years after they quit. And speaking of quitting, stopping smoking even after lung cancer develops can lengthen a patient's survival, seems like common sense. But when patients have small cell lung cancer, it's often considered incurable, so doctors don't press. Now a Canadian study shows that patient who continued smoking during cancer treatment more likely to die in five years than patients who managed somehow to quit smoking before their lung cancer treatment started -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: Rea, more on what doctors and doctor/patient relationships about smoking. Do doctors often encourage them to stop, and if so, why not?</s>BLAKEY: Well, the general guidelines would permit that doctors should in fact encourage smokers to quit, because obviously not a healthy habit. Under the circumstances, when people were diagnosed with small-cell lung disease, because it's considered incurable, oftentimes doctors don't press, because there is so much stress that the people are already under just based on diagnosis, that there really hadn't been an indication that there was any reason to stop them from smoking that would change their health outlook. However, this study shows something dramatically different, so that probably very likely will change the course. Doctors probably will press to get all patients to stop smoking, even if they've been diagnosed with lung cancer.</s>HEMMER: Interesting. Thanks, Rea. Rea Blakey in D.C. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com Symptoms For Terminally Ill Lung Cancer Patients>