Sitemap| Lung Cancer's Harsh Reality |
Companies such as Cellceutix are doing research in lung cancer due to the high incidence of lung cancer and poor survival rates, which create a high level of medical need. We at Cellceutix recently announced some very promising results of a series of animal tests of our lead compound, Kevetrin™, in two multi-drug resistant lung cancer cell lines (A549 & NCI-H1975). In the studies we conducted (each of which was repeated to increase the level of confidence in the results), Kevetrin significantly reduced tumor volume and delayed tumor growth in mice infected with these non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines. While we believe we are off to a good start, we are still in the early stages of the overall process which can lead to a marketed cancer drug. In particular, more work needs to be done to establish the safety of Kevetrin, and subsequently these animal test results need to be confirmed in multiple human studies. The information in this article shows why further lung cancer research is so crucial.
Lung cancer is a late diagnosis, difficult-to treat cancer that forms in the endothelial tissues of the lung, often the cells lining air passages. Lung cancer is the single largest cause of cancer death in the United States (US) and accounts for more than 1,200,000 new cases worldwide annually making lung cancer one of the most serious public health problems in industrialized countries. Lung cancer causes more deaths annually in Western countries than breast, colorectal and prostate cancers combined. In the U.S., there are about 219,000 (predicted to rise to 317,000 by 2017) new cases of lung cancer each year and about 159,000 deaths from lung cancer each year. NSCLC accounts for 80% of all bronchogenic neoplasms.
The economic cost of the "current standard of care" treatments is substantial. As there are no good predictors to identify lung cancer at an early stage, there are currently no increases in early diagnosis and corresponding survival rates. An average of $100,000 is spent on chemotherapy, and an average of $400,000 on total costs per patient per year on lung cancer treatments. The current estimates are that chemotherapy expenditures in the seven largest country markets is estimated at over 6.9 billion $US in 2007. New drug candidates are expected to add another 4 billion $US to market size by 2017.
Lung cancer is treated with local treatments, such as surgery or radiation, or systemic treatments, such as chemotherapy. Selection of the appropriate second and third line treatments will depend on a number of factors, including the type and location of the tumors, the stage of the cancer, and the efficacy of first line treatments. Often doctors will choose a combination of treatment types. When selecting chemotherapy, doctors will often select a combination of two or more medicines that are chosen for their molecular targeting, cytotoxicity, or adjuvant characteristics. A subset of lung cancer patients does not respond to any of the standard chemotherapy medicines. These patients are sometimes called "multi-drug-resistant."
Lung cancer is often divided into two types, small-cell lung cancer, which accounts for about 13% of cases, and non-small-cell lung cancer - NSCLC, which accounts for the remaining 87%. NSCLC is further dived into three main histological types: squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and large cell carcinoma. Small-cell lung cancer tends to spread more quickly and metastasize to other parts of the body than the non-small-cell form.
There is no single accepted screening method for lung cancer. People are frequently asymptomatic for years as the lung cancer cells invade their bodies. Doctors often employ external tests, such as MRIs, CT scans, PET scans and x-rays in an attempt to develop and "early warning" mechanism with mixed results. In addition, pathology tests, such as analysis of blood, lung fluid or lymph node samples are often used.
When diagnosing lung cancer, doctors usually attempt to find out what "stage" the cancer has reached. There are well accepted definitions for stages of each type of lung cancer (American Joint Committee on Cancer Tumor Node Metastases staging system - AJCC-TNM), based on how far the disease has spread. For small-cell lung cancer, doctors will try to determine whether it is in the limited stage or the extensive stage. For non-small-cell lung cancer, the stages go from "occult" to Stages 0 through IV with several sub-stages. When lung cancer has been treated and returns, it is often called recurrent lung cancer.
Even with the high prevalence and low survival rates, lung cancer research continues to be significantly underfunded in the public sector according to 2007 data from the National Cancer Institute ($1,415 per lung cancer death compared to $13,991 per breast cancer death). Because of this, research on new prevention, screening and treatment methods is crucial. Research is going on in universities, hospitals, nonprofit organizations, the Federal Government and in private companies like Cellceutix. All of this research contributes to improving prevention, screening and treatment for lung cancer. But clearly there is a long way to go. At Cellceutix we hope that our research can contribute to improving the well-being of lung-cancer patients and, to this end, we may prioritize the development of Kevetrin for lung cancer.
The following web sites may provide the reader with useful and timely information to the current and future developments in the area of lung cancer and its treatment: |