Ry Rule wil aN lake on dh we ex! ne: ne Une i" yee otea “ihe Tg Nth rane te& a w‘Ni haoy \nduced al ally n an and ay Wan bref fUPe Sqr a ceou “A. Mes, 7As7 ~a pet ae an Trace Neale a “hn af . aa co nene oe mac ane oer one i.‘na New Hope For Lung Cancer Patients (NAPSA)—Scientists are finding new waysto combat lung cancer in the United States. Each year more people die of lung cancer than breast, prostate and colorectal cancers combined. According to a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), however, a new treatment option mayoffer hope for those who suffer from small-cell lung cancer, a particularly hard-to-treat form of the disease. The NEJM study showed that a new chemotherapy regimen involving Camptosar, also known as CPT-11 (irinotecan hydrochloride injection), in combi- nation with another cancer drug, cisplatin, significantly prolonged survival for small-cell lung cancer patients. In the study, 60 percent of patients who received the Camptosar containing regimen lived one year or longer compared with only 40 percent of patients who received the standard treatment of cisplatin and etoposide (another cancer drug). Based on these promising results, a larger study was set up at 47 sites in the United States. “It’s exciting that we may be able to extend survival for people “For someof thesepatients, it may mean they get to see their next wedding anniversary, the birth of a grandchild or a high school graduation that they otherwise would have missed.” @ with small-cell lung cancer,” said Dr. Alan Sandler, director of Van- derbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s Thoracic Oncology Program in Nashville, TN, and principal investigator of the U.S. study. Lungcancer accounts for 14 per- cent of all cancer diagnoses and 28 percent of all cancer deaths in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates that in the last year, 169,500 new casesof lung cancer were diagnosed and 157,400 people died from the disease in the United States. For more information about the U.S. study contact VanderbiltIngram’s Cancer Information Pro- gram at 1-800-811-8480 or visit WWW.VICC.OFg.
