I truely agree that not enough is being done but there is hope. I have heard these doctors speak at the Twin Cities Thoracic Onocology Consortium.
Robert Kratzke, M.D., and Michael Maddaus, M.D., are using a molecule-based technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect lung cancer micrometastases, cells too small to otherwise be detected. In this nationwide study, the largest of its kind, Kratzke and Maddaus are evaluating whether PCR techniques can reliably predict .cancer recurrence or poor treatment outcome in patients with the most common type of lung cancer.
In a study that could allow physicians to make an accurate prediction of cancer recurrence risk, Robert Kratzke, M.D., and Michael Maddaus, M.D., found that the technique quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR can identify metastatic lung cancer cells in each lymph node. If left untreated, undetected metastatic cells can form new tumors. Their study was published in Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, March 2002.
http://jtcs.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/cont ... /123/3/484
Donna G