Photodynamic therapy for multiple primary bronchogenic carcinoma

Article Abstract:

A complication of most cancers is the metastatic spread of disease, which results in formation of new colonies of cancer cells in distant parts of the body. Lung cancer is typical in this regard. However, in a small number of lung cancer cases, perhaps 1 to 3.5 percent, the patient develops multiple primaries. That is, the patient develops more than one lung cancer, but one is not the result of metastatic spread of the other. Multiple primaries are likely to be found more frequently as early detection of lung cancer improves and as patients with lung cancer are able to survive longer on treatment. A new therapeutic treatment for lung cancer in photodynamic therapy. In this method, the patient is injected with hematoporphyrin, a substance which is selectively accumulated within cancer cells. The hematoporphyrin does not serve as a chemotherapeutic agent, that is, is not cytotoxic (cell-killing) in its own right. But this compound is a photosensitizing agent. Cells which have accumulated hematoporphyrin are more sensitive to the effects of light than are normal cells. It is possible, therefore, to follow the hematoporphyrin injection with laser beam irradiation to kill the lung cancer cells. This method is suitable for patients with early stage cancers which can be visualized using an endoscope. When the tumor can be identified with this fiber-optic viewing device, a laser beam can then be delivered precisely to the tumor. Researchers have evaluated this method of treatment in 145 cases; 13 of these cases were patients with multiple primary tumors. In five cases, the multiple tumors developed simultaneously, and in the remaining eight cases the tumors were not simultaneous. Three of the five simultaneous tumor patients are alive after 11, 15, and 42 months; of the eight remaining patients, four are alive after 45, 46, 87, and 94 months. These results indicate that photodynamic therapy may be added to the list of treatment options for patients with multiple primary lung cancers. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Health aspects, Care and treatment, Methods, Photosensitizing compounds, Photosensitizing agents, Photochemotherapy

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The use of biomarkers in the prediction of survival in patients with pulmonary carcinoma

Article Abstract:

Numerous studies have examined the secretion of hormones by tumors and other neoplastic tissue, from as far back as a 1928 study of adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) in bearded women. Although many studies have confirmed the abnormal secretion of hormones and other biochemicals by tumor tissue, there is little agreement on what this says about the biology of these abnormal growths. In order to provide more insight into the biology of tumor growth and its relation to the secretion of biomarker substances, 10 patient variables and 16 biochemical marker levels were recorded for 148 patients with primary lung cancer, although complete data was able to be obtained from only 119. The biomarkers measured included substances such as carcinoembryonic antigen, tumor marker antibody, and the N-peptide of proopiomelanocortin. Ten of the 16 biomarkers were significantly correlated with shortened survival time. Two markers, prolactin and tumor-associated antibody, were significantly correlated with increased survival. An important observation is the lack of correlation among the various biomarkers themselves. This suggests that the ''turning-on'' of many genes, which seems to happen within cancerous cells, is probably the result of a random process. If most genes were turned on, then most markers would be simultaneously elevated and thus highly correlated. Since the correlation is not observed, the data supports the hypothesis that some of the genes that are repressed in normal cells are unrepressed during the cancerous transformation, and that this derepression hits various genes randomly. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Research, Cancer research, Prognosis, Cancer, Tumor markers

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