CindyA

This morning as I was wondering around the Web, I was also thinking about how the world seems smaller and more intimate when others are coping with something like you are. I was thinking back to so many comments at the recent HOPE Summit in Washington DC, and the looks on people's faces when they heard they weren't alone in their journey - someone in the room, at their table, could understand, they had felt it, they got it. And in the midst of my meandering thoughts I just happened upon an entry - a song and pictures -- that stirred my heart. I knew I had to share it with all of you. This story aired on the Classic Hits Station WJLT, provides a glimpse into the life of someone with lung cancer. It tells of a woman, Jennifer Glass, who was diagnosed with lung cancer. When she began treatment her husband started taking photos of her every day for a year. Together with her brother Lawrence, Jennifer wrote a song about that year. Do any of these phrases stand out to you? "Why do the swallows still sing? They ought to know we're mournful and slow, but their cheerful voices ring." "Life isn't fair; it comes out of nowhere, nowhere, nowhere..." "Before I check out, I have one thing to shout, at the top of my lungs, I was here!" But you have to hear it yourself. http://lungcancer.about.com/b/2014/05/1 ... d-like.htm

“Dan is actually a wonderful example of what you can achieve with what’s called personalized medicine,” Dr. Camidge said. Portraits of the most blissful year of Dan Powell’s life rest on the mantel and hang on the walls of his living room. On top of the world at 35, Powell married the girl of his dreams, became a father and bought the white Colonial with refinished hardwoods on a quiet street near the base of Paris Mountain. He loved his job — or really, jobs — as Greenville County air-quality director and city planner for Fountain Inn. He wrote grants that brought in millions of dollars to revitalize Fountain Inn, build safe trails and start clean-air programs. Words scripted on another living room wall — “With God all things are possible.” — give a glimpse into the year that followed. Powell — a health-conscious, fit, nonsmoker — was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer on Jan. 23. He was told he had nine to 12 months to live. Then doctors discovered a new drug that could save, or at least prolong, his life. But it was costly, $9,600 a month. By then Powell was on a fixed income, and insurance wouldn’t cover everything. So when he needed help most, the man who made a career writing grants for others scrawled one more grant request on a sheet of notebook paper. This time, he hoped a grant would save his own life. And in efficiency never seen in government grants, he was approved the next day. The journey begins It started with shortness of breath on an early December afternoon, as Powell walked along a path that Fountain Inn planned to turn into a walking trail. He’d worked for years to bring money to the close-knit community to expand its trails and improve its downtown so more visitors would discover the city he helped revitalize. Breathing difficulties were nothing new to Powell. He had wrestled with childhood asthma, and he knew how to manage the disease. In fact, his asthma led him to an interest in air quality. As director of Keep Greenville County Beautiful, city planner for Fountain Inn and director of special projects for Greenville County’s planning department, he sought to keep Greenville’s air clean to help others breathe easier. He helped bring the Breathe Better Air at School anti-idling program to Greenville County Schools. He wrote a grant to build sidewalks and trails through Safe Routes to School, and another to establish the southern tip of the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail through Fountain Inn. Powell lives to help others. He does it constantly, reflexively, sometimes overextending himself in the process. He thought his breathing problems might be stress-related due to long hours and big changes. It had been a monumental eight months since he married Rebecca, moved into their new home and began the process to adopt her 6-year-old son, Davis. He had passed his annual physical with flying colors in November, but his breathing problems persisted, and he came down with back-to-back colds, developed minor heartburn, a slight stubborn cough and began to tire quickly. He thought he might have pneumonia. The idea of pneumonia alarmed him since his grandfather had died from it. So he made another appointment. This time the doctor ordered a chest X-ray, which did show an infection. He went to a pulmonologist who took a bronchial scope on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The results came back that Thursday in January. “It seems like forever, and we’re waiting on the doctor to show up,” he said. “He walks in the room. He sits down on the stool and he puts his hand on my knee, his head’s down, and he says, ‘You’ve got Stage 4 lung cancer.’ ” Powell turned pale, needed air, just needed space. He stepped into the hall, dizzy, he nearly collapsed, sat down. Nurses brought water. Then, he gathered himself. “I got back up and walked into the office and said, ‘I want to go to the hospital.’ ” No, not next week, he told his doctor. “I said, ‘Now.’ ” Hours later, he met his oncologist and lay in a hospital bed, surrounded by family and friends. Images showed cancer pockets that “looked like a Christmas tree,” Powell said. Cells had spread to both lungs, his blood, lymph nodes and bones. Doctors said they could treat it, but there was no cure. His cancer was too widespread for surgery. On the same day he was diagnosed, Powell started chemotherapy. A moment of change It’s natural to question while you toss and turn in a hospital room as buzzers beep and nurses check in, and that night, Powell couldn’t sleep. His mind raced. He knew lung cancer had been tied to air pollution, and now he believed his cancer could be a result. After all, he’d grown up near a coal plant and already had asthma. Last October, the World Health Organization declared air pollution to be a carcinogen and its link to lung cancer and possibly bladder cancer was unmistakable. Powell, the air quality champion, couldn’t believe he now had lung cancer. His turmoil reached an apex that morning, and he still chokes up when he recalls the moment his outlook changed. A custodian came into the room, and while cleaning up, she asked if he was all right. No, he said. He explained his cancer, and she told him he was young and not to believe the odds. “I’ve seen people walk out of here with Stage 4 lung cancer and have amazing results,” she told him. “She literally got down on her hands and knees … and she held my hands and said, ‘It’s going to be all right,’ ” Powell said. “She prayed with me and said, you’re going to be healed. God wants to keep you around.” Her words sunk in. Then the planner, the analyzer, took over. Powell asked for a second opinion and another oncologist to give him better news. Enter Dr. Fahd Quddus, who wouldn’t give him a life-expectancy timeline, but gave hope that his cancer might be linked to a specific mutation in his genes that the medical world had just discovered in 2007. The test results would take a month. Chemo continued. Finding his way Bound to a cane, a walker or a wheelchair, his brown hair gone from chemo and his already thin frame 25 pounds lighter, Powell waited. The news came as snow enveloped Greenville on a mid-February afternoon. Powell had ALK-positive (anaplastic lymphoma kinase) non-small-cell lung cancer, which is found in only 4 percent of lung cancer patients, said Dr. Ross Camidge, an oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and a leading researcher in lung cancer treatments for patients with specific gene mutations. When the ALK gene mutation was discovered in 2007, a drug already in clinical trial was discovered to be an ALK inhibitor, Camidge said. Camidge is one of the group of researchers who discovered the drug, called Xalkori, which blocks cancer cells from spreading and can lead to remission. Before Xalkori, lung cancer patients faced the same basic cancer treatments, he said. But now patients can be screened for the ALK gene and then treated individually, he said. Camidge called it a perfect storm of individualized care, giving specific treatments to groups of people who were likely to benefit from it the most. There’s a debate brewing about whether the cost to research, test and bring drugs like these to market is worth the price, since the drug only works on specialized types of cancer found in just 4 percent of lung cancer patients. To those with cancer, it’s not much of a debate. Powell needed to find a way to pay the $115,000 cost per year to buy it. Though he had insurance, it wouldn’t cover everything. Too weak to sit at a computer to fill out the request for assistance, Powell hand-wrote his request to the national nonprofit Good Days from Chronic Disease Fund, which provides assistance with ongoing medical costs to patients in need. He found out the next day he was approved. A beautiful image With belt cinched tight and short-sleeved dress shirt hanging loose from his frame, Powell sunk into an oversized armchair that enveloped him in his fan-cooled living room. He shook the rectangular white Xalkori container filled with 250 milligram miracles. “This medicine right here is what’s saving my life,” Powell said. Quddus told Powell the medicine could contain the cancer, at least for a time, but it’s not billed as a cure. Powell wanted a cure. Another opinion. He called Pfizer, which makes the drug. He traveled to Yale Medical Center to speak with another leading lung cancer researcher. He connected with a mentor and four-year lung cancer survivor at a support group called Lungevity. You’re on track, they all said. Trust the medicine. Let it work. Two weeks later, he had another CT scan. Quddus called him back to his office to look at the images. Two nurses sat in the room, both in tears. “I was like, what’s going on? And they were just wiping tears away, and he was in big smiles and he said, ‘Look at this.’ ” “When you looked at the two scans of my lungs, there was like a two-thirds reduction in tumors, from going all over the place to almost gone.” His cancer was in remission. He left the office and drove straight to a car dealership to buy a Nissan Leaf fully electric car. Sharing his story Now two months have passed. Powell celebrated his 36th birthday with a cake in the hospital, and celebrated again when scans showed the cancer gone from all but his lungs, and the cells in his lungs are tiny. He talks about watching his son graduate from college. He hopes to qualify for a new drug, Zykadia, which was approved two weeks ago and is stronger than his current drug. “Dan is actually a wonderful example of what you can achieve with what’s called personalized medicine,” Camidge said. “If you know what’s driving somebody’s cancer, and you give a drug targeted to that abnormality that’s driving their cancer, then the kind of response that Dan’s got is actually typical.” The cancer could return, Camidge said. “You create an environment that is effectively suppressing the cancer very successfully, but like any environment, the cancer will adapt to it,” Camidge said. “At some point in the future, parts of his cancer will figure a way around it and start to grow.” As inhibitor drugs prolong lives, researchers scramble to build the next generation of drugs and race to find a cure, Camidge said. Powell wants to share his story. He’s recorded YouTube videos, he spoke at a Moonlight 5K race and traveled to Washington, D.C., to a Lungevity national conference. In June, Good Days from CDF will come to record his story to share with other patients seeking help with medication payments, said Peggy Foley, Good Days’ senior director of marketing. “The connection between the possibility of the environment, we don’t know, playing a role in him getting this disease, and the fact that he’s been so vocal in wanting to address it … we just think it was a really good story to increase awareness,” Foley said. Powell has thrown himself into new endeavors. He’s trying to expand the number of electric vehicle charging stations in Greenville. He’s raising awareness for lung cancer research. He will serve as grand marshal for the Relay for Life on Friday at J.L. Mann High School. For Powell, it’s a matter of life or death. “This buys me time,” he said, picking up the miracle pillbox again. “Some people go a year. Some people go six years, but I need to know what’s next after this.” Contact reporter Nathaniel Cary at 864-298-4272 or follow @nathanielcary on Twitter. http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/n ... r/9375813/

KUSA - A lung cancer drug produced by Boulder-based company is on the fast-track for FDA approval. Monday afternoon the FDA announced it granted Clovis Oncology 'breakthrough therapy' status for one of its treatments. The drug, known as CO-1686, treats Stage 4 lung cancer. It's been effective in clinical trials on patients for which other therapies have not worked or produced severe side effects. The 'breakthrough therapy' designation stems from a provision written by Sen. Michael Bennet (D), which passed congress in 2012. It puts some life-saving drugs on pace to get faster approval from the FDA, while maintaining safety, if they show dramatic results in early clinical trials. "Today we see a great example in Colorado of a company that's seizing the future. That's growing. That's paying good wages. And that's saving people along the way," Bennet said. Bennet says since the bill passed more than 40 drugs, treating everything from Hepatitis C to cystic fibrosis, have been put on the fast track to FDA approval. (KUSA-TV © 2014 Multimedia Holdings Corporation) http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2 ... l/9313169/

I miss our conversations. Are you okay? I hope you all are doing well and are busy with happy moments. The weather here in Dallas is beautiful. the sun is bright and warm, the skies are a beautiful baby blue, and the breeze is delightful. Hows the weather where you are?

Hi mattmirror, Thank you for posting your question. We are working to find you an answer. I put your question on our Facebook page hoping someone would drop in with some advice. Please try visting this pae and posting your question there. It's specific to NSCLC viewforum.php?f=38 Talk with you soon, Cindy

nctcancer14, I hope you had a lovely Mothers Day! Broccoli and cheese soup sounds great! Have your symptoms eased up a bit?

Hi Robert K, I'm sad to learn that your mother has been diagnosed with lung cancer. Have you thought about a second opinion from another Oncologist? I hope that you will find answers to the questions you are looking for. Please keep us posted.

Thank you Randy for trying to help. What a sweet service your friend is providing. That warmed my heart. HUGS!

"Life as a Champion" Watch LUNGevity advocate and survivor, Jill Feldman's interview on CBS2.

Hi emf378, Thank you for choosing us as your support group. Here is a link to our Caregiver Resource Center: http://events.lungevity.org/cg/index.html I hope this helps a little. Please keep us posted on how you are and your Mom are doing. I look forward to getting to know you.

Hi everyone! We are back from the National HOPE Summit. It was my first time and it was so inspirational, and enlightening. How are you? What's new in your life? We have a handful of new members in the "Introduce Yourself" and "My Story" area. Please feel free to scroll up and drop a line if you have a sec.

Hello Ms Rock, Thank you for taking the time to post in this message board. This is a place full of understanding, Hope and support. We have a lot of friends on here who have been stage IV for quite some time. My friend is going on her 6th year as a stage IV Survivor. Just today someone posted in here that they have been stage IV for TEN years! Isn't that great? Also, please post any questions you may have. We have a lot of awesome Caregivers in here too that have many years of experience with LC. Please feel free to browse around within these message boards under different topics. We have many conversations going on right now. Here are some link that may be helpful to you as well. http://events.lungevity.org/site/PageSe ... ndAdvocacy http://events.lungevity.org/site/PageSe ... s_of_Hope# I look forward to getting to know you. Please post in the message boards often and keep us updated on how you are doing.

My Crazy Life By Beth Smith As a 46-year-old with six children, my life is much the same as many others: Crazy! Two of my children are biological; two are stepchildren; and two are kinship foster children. Their ages range from 4 to 24. My Mother Lung cancer entered my crazy life in November 2005 with my mother. That day I was scheduled to host a holiday luncheon at my home for my mother and some of our friends. My mother called me early that morning to tell me she had thrown up blood and we should continue the party without her. That was not going to happen! My mother has always been my rock of Gibraltar. There was no way I was having a party while she was in the ER or Lord knows what. I called an acquaintance of mine whose husband is a pulmonologist and he saw my mom that same day. Although the doctor could not yet confirm cancer, my mother knew by the look in his eyes. My mother has an amazing way of being so in tune with her body. My mother was diagnosed with Stage I lung cancer in her left upper lobe. I now know that—if lung cancer is the diagnoses—this is the stage you want. She underwent surgery on January 21, 2006 and has had no evidence of the disease since then! My Other Mother Three years later, Anna Hixon, my birth mother who gave me up for adoption at birth, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Cancer was also found in her lymph nodes and the area between her lungs, so her diagnosis was Stage III. Doctors aggressively treated her with chemotherapy. Initially, she responded well to the treatment. Then in 2012, following a seizure, tumors were found on her brain. Gamma knife treatment seemed to help. However, in 2013, more tumors were found on her brain. Anna lost her battle to lung cancer on June 23, 2013. My Lifelong Friend On May 28, 2013, just days before my birth mother passed away from lung cancer, my best friend of 44 years was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer, which had metastasized to her bones. I told Susan we would fight it together. I told her she would have plenty of warriors in her corner. We talked about forming a Foundation in her name, doing walks, and many different things. Susan and I learned that—compared to breast cancer—there is very little funding or support for lung cancer. But through LUNGevity, Susan and I both found help and hope. LUNGevity is about survivors, hope and networking. The people with this organization have changed my crazy life forever. I found a network of lung cancer survivors who have given me so much inspiration to get out and advocate for lung cancer. I have seen the impact lung cancer had on three very important people in my life. And it has given new purpose to my life, which is about to get even crazier. I am informed. I am empowered. I am impassioned. I am ready to fight this disease through advocating for more lung cancer research funding, compassion for patients and awareness that anyone can get lung cancer.

Organic Foods – Some Common Questions and Answers By Heidi Scarsella Organic food was once difficult to find, but today it can be easily found at most grocery stores. As shoppers stand in the produce section of their grocery store they often struggle with the decision, should they buy the conventionally grown produce or should they buy organic. They wonder if it is worth it to spend the extra money on organic. Here are some facts about organic food from organic.org: What does organic mean? Organic produce and other ingredients are grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation. Organic farming promotes soil and water conservation and reduces pollution. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established an organic certification program that requires all organic foods to meet strict government standards. These standards regulate how such foods are grown, handled and processed. How do I know if something is organic? When choosing to buy organic, it is helpful to look for the following USDA regulated terms on food labels: 100% Organic: Made with 100% organic ingredients Organic: Made with at least 95% organic ingredients and can display USDA organic seal Made With Organic Ingredients: Made with a minimum of 70% organic ingredients with strict restrictions on the remaining 30% including no GMOs (genetically modified organisms) Products with less than 70% organic ingredients may list organically produced ingredients on the side panel of the package, but may not make any organic claims on the front of the package. Fruits and vegetables are either grown organically or not, so the organic ones always fall into the 100% organic category. Meats, eggs, poultry, and dairy labeled “organic” must come from animals that have never received antibiotics or growth hormones. Is organic food more nutritious than conventional food? At this time, there is no conclusive research that makes this claim. Most of the research appears to indicate that organically and conventionally grown produced foods are comparable in their nutrient content. Research in this area continues. Are there downsides to buying organic? One common concern with organic food is price. Organic foods typically cost more than do their conventional counterparts. Higher prices are mostly attributable to more costly farming practices. Because organic fruits and vegetables aren’t treated with preservatives, they may not last as long because they spoil faster. Also, some organic produce may be smaller in size and not look as perfect. It’s your decision Although there is not consistent proof that organic foods are better for adults’ health than conventional foods, some choose to limit their exposure to potential pesticide residues. A helpful resource when deciding to choose more organic produce is to use the “Dirty Dozen” list which can be found on the Environmental Working Group’s website,www.ewg.org Keep in mind that eating ANY fruit or vegetable is better than NOT eating fruits or vegetables simply because they are not organic. Research studies have shown that the more fruits and vegetables a person eats, the lower his or her risk of cancer and other diseases. Another option for your fresh fruits and vegetables is to buy local. Local foods tend to be higher in nutrients because they are picked fresh and sold to you soon after picking. Also consider planting a garden and growing your own supply of fruits & vegetables. You can find a local farmer’s market by visiting http://www.localharvest.org Summer is a great season for fresh and local produce. So whether you decide to buy organic or not – be sure to enjoy a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables! Also check back in our blog often for healthy and delicious recipes as well! http://blog.lungevity.org/2014/05/12/or ... d-answers/

Dear Cancer… May 6th, 2014 - by admin by Jeff Ehlers (I wrote this while I was waiting for my flight in the DC airport following the 2014 LUNGevity HOPE Summit.) What would you say to cancer if you could send it a letter? That was the question posed to our group of lung cancer survivors at the 2014 HOPE Summit in Washington D.C. I thought about this question long and hard last night. What would I say…? Dear Cancer, If you were human, I would think I should feel pity for you, but I don’t. You are indeed the most wretched of all diseases. You sneak into our bodies, hiding in the shadows, masking your trail, lingering, growing, biding your time until you you’ve grown enough to stage an attack on your unsuspecting host. You sabotage our immune systems and grow fat on our resources. I have seen you face to face and know you for the devious coward that you are. I have watched you devour those closest to me and heard the stories of battles fought by others. I have added my tears to those shed by countless people over the years and faced sleepless nights wondering how you found your way into my body…and why? Some who have had the misfortune to meet you were never able to tell their tale, never able to consider their response or even come up with a plan of attack. We mourn their loss and our rage burns against you, driving our determination to support those who have the ability to find you, hunt you down and destroy you before you can harm another of those that we hold dear. Others were blessed to find you lurking while you were small, before you had a chance to spread, and multiply and they have waged war against your forces, fighting a battle of life and death where there can only be one survivor. I have seen people encounter you for the first time frozen in fear, screaming inside, expecting the worst. You enjoy this reaction for it means that you’ve already won a good portion of the battle. The warriors who find you in time, refusing to panic or wasting effort feeling sorry for themselves, are the ones who give you the most trouble. They assemble a team, lay out a strategy, prepare, pray and pounce. They will not go down without a fight. Many have defeated you in their individual battles and stand as a beacon of hope to show others the way. Every day that passes from the calendar marks another discovery, another theory to test, another milestone in the research community that seeks to eliminate you. Awareness develops, the message spreads and funds are assembled to advance this army of lab coat soldiers. They too seek your destruction and work tirelessly, finding triggers to turn you off, to allow the body to fight back and expose your cells for the invaders that they are. Our doctors, nurses and therapists, advocates and caregivers lock arms with us and we fight in unity for your demise. We know that some will be lost during the battle. Wars cannot be won without casualties. With every victim you claim, we mourn the loss, cherish the memories and regroup, stronger and wiser than before. Make no mistake – our tears are not a sign of weakness. They are a symbol of the love, respect and passion each of us holds for those who have fallen and together they create a river that carries away the fear that always follows your arrival. We are coming for you. We are strong, we are united, we are wise to your ways and make no mistake, we will find you where you hide and we will kick your *ss. Sincerely, Survivors Everywhere http://blog.lungevity.org/2014/05/06/dear-cancer/

May LUNGevity Hero: Bauer Family LUNGevity Foundation is proud to honor our May LUNGevity Hero, the Bauer family of Shaker Heights, Ohio, who has made lemonade out of lemons – quite literally – raising money for lung cancer research with proceeds from an after-school lemonade stand. When Harriet Bauer lost her mother, Lois Karp, to lung cancer, she was devastated. But the Bauer family has been able to honor Lois’s memory by raising awareness and funds for the fight against the disease. Harriet’s young children, Greta and Owen, had been running the “Bauer/Powers Lemonade Stand” in front of their house since the beginning of the 2009 school year to grow their business skills. However, when Lois died that September, Harriet was inspired to keep Lois’ s memory alive, and help others faced with the same diagnosis, by using the lemonade stand to raise funds to help fight the disease. Since 2009, the Bauer family has spent Friday afternoons in front of their house, selling lemonade, hot cocoa, and delicious treats to the local community. Not only do they provide a tasty stop to start the weekend off right, but they also remind the community of an important cause. The sign taped to the front of their stand explains to customers that “all proceeds are donated to lung cancer research.” The Bauers hope that the donations will help our nation work toward a cure and that the lemonade stand will inspire others to learn more about the ongoing research seeking treatments and cures for lung cancer and join them in supporting the cause. LUNGevity Foundation is constantly impressed with the inspiring and creative ideas that people generate to raise awareness and funds for the fight against lung cancer. It is these projects across the nation, from our Breathe Deep walks to golf outings and lemonade stands, that bring us ever closer to the discovery of early detection methods and successful treatments. One cup of lemonade at a time, the Bauers are helping win the battle against lung cancer. http://blog.lungevity.org/2014/05/01/ma ... er-family/

Congratulations Richard on your 10 year! That is wonderful news! We appreciate you posting this inspirational video in our message boards. Katie has posted it on our LUNGevity Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/lungevity We hope you will continue to post in these forums.

Feel free to vent here anytime. We have a great group of friends here who have open arms and supportive information for you. Depression can be consuming, have you thought about talking to a Nurse Navigator about your feelings? Maybe she (or he) could recommend you to a therapist until you feel better. We will be here waiting for you anytime. Here is a link to "Faces of Hope". It's one of my favorite links to visit. I hope you will find some hope here too. http://events.lungevity.org/site/PageSe ... s_of_Hope#

Hello GDE, I'm glad you chose us for support. We have many friends who post here regularly. I hope you will be one of them too. We also have many friends here who have been stage IV for several years and are still going strong! We have great blogs of hope, & a lot of resources for you and your Dad to explore. http://events.lungevity.org/site/PageSe ... ndAdvocacy Please keep posting and let us know how both of you are doing.

May is Lung Cancer Hope Month Tommieann Bolden knows that lung cancer is anybody’s disease. What keeps her going is hope, and the saying that she repeats to herself often: “I shall live and not die.” Tommieann speaks here about her diagnosis, her plans to see her children graduate and marry, and the various resources that LUNGevity offers survivors. "LUNGevity opened the door for me to know that I can live with this." Please watch her video and please comment below and let us know what keeps YOU going.

Frank Slack, PhDF, Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University, and his colleagues have been awarded a research grant from LUNGevity Foundation to continue studying inherited sections of DNA that could be used as biomarkers for lung cancer risk or as targets for personalized treatment. Dr. Slack is collaborating on this project with Joanne Weidhaas, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale University, and Hai Tran, PharmD, Associate Professor of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In previous work, Dr. Slack discovered a set of inherited genetic variations that could potentially be used as biomarkers for personalized lung cancer treatments. One of these sections of DNA, called the KRAS variant, is found in about 20 percent of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and has been shown to be linked to an increased risk of NSCLC. Research has also shown that patients with the KRAS variant are likely to benefit from some types of treatment but not from others. Building on these studies, Dr. Slack and his collaborators are using cutting-edge techniques to target the KRAS variant as a possible approach to treating NSCLC in the future. In addition, the researchers are using laboratory cell lines and tissue samples from BATTLE-2, a large-scale lung cancer clinical trial, to continue testing the ability to use the KRAS variant to make treatment recommendations for NSCLC patients. “We are very excited to be able to continue working on the KRAS variant,” says Dr. Slack. “It has a lot of potential as a treatment option, a biomarker of risk, and a predictor of treatment outcomes. That combination may turn out to be very powerful.” If Dr. Slack and his collaborators are successful, they could be opening the door to major improvements for NSCLC patients with a new option for treatment and a more personalized treatment plan. http://ow.ly/wKdLi

Good morning. We #hope all of our friends who are Mother's had a marvelous day yesterday! Thank you for all that you do. May is "Lung Cancer Hope Month", what are you hopeful for?

Quick scans may detect lung cancer early Banner Health's new Northern Colorado Lung Cancer Screening Program aims to catch cancer when it's easier to treat By Joyce Davis http://www.reporterherald.com/lifestyle ... ncer-early

Fantastic!! Thank you Valerie Harper (and Chip Kennett) for raising awareness about #lung cancer today. Share! Keep the momentum going and raise awareness during this Lung Cancer Hope Month! ABC News http://ow.ly/wCVZ6

LUNGevity Foundation Applauds FDA Approval of Zykadia (ceritinib) as Additional Tool in Arsenal for Locally Advanced or Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Aliza Bran abran@susandavis.com (202) 414-0798 Ceritinib (brand name Zykadia™) will be used for the treatment of patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have progressed on or are intolerant to crizotinib (brand name Xalkori™) WASHINGTON (May 1, 2014) – LUNGevity Foundation applauds the FDA approval of Zykadia™ for the subset of anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) patients with advanced cases of non-small cell lung cancer who have progressed on or are intolerant to crizotinib. Zykadia™ was given breakthrough therapy designation in March 2013 and received FDA approval under the agency’s accelerated approval program. Having a range of ALK inhibitors provides important options for these patients. Zykadia™ approval helps address an unmet medical need. Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common form of lung cancer, representing 85% of lung cancer cases, and in the majority of patients it is diagnosed in locally advanced or metastatic stages when it is more difficult to treat. “The approval of Zykadia™ is an important milestone in the treatment of lung cancer as it offers the opportunity for patients who are ALK+ to continue to do well once they have progressed on crizotinib,” said LUNGevity Foundation President Andrea Stern Ferris. “Several of our constituents participated in the pivotal clinical trial for Zykadia™ and continue to do well today. We applaud the FDA and Novartis for successfully bringing this product to the patients so quickly.” LUNGevity Foundation, as the largest private funder of lung cancer research in the United States, places a high priority on lung cancer research that can directly improve patients’ lives. Zykadia™ is an oral, selective inhibitor of ALK, an important therapeutic target in lung cancer. Zykadia™ is one of the first medicines to be approved following FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation, which was received in March 2013 due to the significance of results observed in the pivotal trial and the serious and life-threatening nature of ALK+ NSCLC. “It is exciting to see advancements come to market for this group of patients who respond so well to ALK inhibitors but are in need of follow-on therapies,” said Ferris. For more information on LUNGevity Foundation, please visit www.LUNGevity.org. http://ow.ly/wCKo6