Author Interviews, Cancer Research, JAMA, Lung Cancer, Smoking, USPSTF / 16.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John B. Wong, M.D. Chief Scientific Officer, Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs Chief of the Division of Clinical Decision Making Primary Care Clinician Department of Medicine Tufts Medical Center  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women in the United States. More than 200,000 people are diagnosed with this devastating disease each year. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, resulting in the vast majority of lung cancers in the United States. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Lung Cancer / 17.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Robert Van Haren, MD, MSPH College of Medicine University of Cincinnati  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all areas of society including the field of oncology. This study evaluated the impact of COVID-19 on lung cancer screening.  Screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans are important because they reduce lung cancer mortality by at least 20%.  Our lung cancer screening program was closed in March 2020 due to COVID 19 and reopened again in June 2020.  We cancelled over 800 LDCTs during that time period.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, CDC, JAMA, Lung Cancer / 10.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David A. Siegel, MD, MPH Division of Cancer Prevention and Control US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, Georgia MedicalResearch.com: Why is it important to better understand the smoking histories (both current/former and never smokers) among lung cancer patients? Response: Knowledge of smoking status of patients diagnosed with lung cancer can help us understand how to best prevent, detect, and treat lung cancer in the future. More than 84% of women and 90% of men newly diagnosed with lung cancer had ever smoked cigarettes, and half of patients aged 20 to 64 years newly diagnosed with lung cancer were current cigarette smokers. These findings reinforce the importance of cigarette cessation and lung cancer screening. 1 out of every 8 people diagnosed with lung cancer had never smoked cigarettes, which reiterates the importance of learning more about their risk factors for lung cancer, which could impact prevention and treatment.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Cancer Research / 07.10.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Padma Sundar, Senior Vice President of Commercial , OncocyteTM oncocyte.com MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this announcement? How common is Stage I-IIA non-squamous NSCLC?  DetermaRxTM is a treatment stratification test to identify patients with Stage I-IIA non-squamous NSCLC who may benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy.
  • Stage I-IIA non-squamous NSCLC represents ~20% of the lung cancer population and 40,000 patients annually in the U.S.1
  • Patients with this diagnosis usually undergo surgical resection and are presumed “cured”. While these patients are presumed “cured”, the recurrence rate in early-stage NSCLC of 30-50%. Usually, these recurrences happen within the first two years after surgery and are likely due to the presence of occult distant metastasis at the time of surgery.2
  • Until now, there has not been a validated means of identifying which early-stage patients are at a higher risk of disease recurrence and require adjuvant chemotherapy, versus those patients that are likely cured by surgery alone.
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Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Lung Cancer / 27.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Amy C. Moore PhD Director of Science and Research GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer MedicalResearch.com: What is the mission of the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer? Response: GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer’s mission is to transform survivorship by  saving, extending, and improving the lives of those vulnerable, at risk, and diagnosed with lung cancer. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Environmental Risks, Lung Cancer, Occupational Health / 18.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Theresa S. Emory MD Department of Pathology, Peninsula Pathology Associates Newport News, VA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Cosmetic talc products can contain asbestos, which is the primary cause of malignant mesothelioma. We investigated 75 individuals with malignant mesothelioma, whose only known exposure to asbestos was repeated exposures to cosmetic talcum powder. 83% of the individuals were female and several occurred in barbers/cosmetologists. 16% occurred in individuals younger than 45 years old, and on average the subjects were 11 years younger than predicted, based on SEER data. The asbestos fibers in tissue samples that were examined in 11 cases were identical (anthophyllite and tremolite) to those identified in cosmetic talc. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Lung Cancer, Stanford / 09.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Dr. Andreas Keller Stanford University School of Medicine Office Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences Chair for Clinical Bioinformatics Saarbrücken, Germany MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Lung cancer is among the three most common cancers and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The overall low survival rate of patients with lung cancer calls for improved detection tools to enable better treatment options and improved patients’ outcomes. To detect lung tumors, liquid biopsy-based strategies are increasingly explored, that are biomarkers, which are identifiable in body fluids such as human blood. The clinical application of biomarkers is, however, largely hampered by the relatively small numbers of cases that have been analyzed in the majority of the preclinical studies including the studies on lung cancer.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, CT Scanning, Lung Cancer / 04.02.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Carlijn M. van der Aalst, Ph.D. MPH Department of Public Health Erasmus MC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality among both men and women. About 70% of patients with lung cancer are diagnosed with advanced disease, which results in only 15% surviving five years. About 70% of patients with lung cancer are diagnosed with advanced disease, a stage in which cure is problematic. This results in only 15% surviving five years. Although quit smoking is most effective in preventing lung cancer, about half of all lung cancers are currently diagnosed in former smokers, who remain at high risk for decades after quitting smoking. The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST; U.S.) reported a 20% lung cancer-related mortality reduction and a 6.7% reduction in all-cause mortality for CT screening compared with chest radiography screening for lung cancer in 53,454 enrolled subjects at high risk for lung cancer.1 As a consequence, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) requested an independent review and a modelling study. Based on these NLST data, an efficient strategy with a reasonable harm-benefit ratio could be established, resulting in the recommendation to annually screen persons aged 55-80 with ≥30 pack-years of smoking history, who currently smoke or quit smoking <15 years ago. However, data of only one trial provides limited evidence and more trial data are needed. NELSON is the second largest lung cancer screening trial that is adequately designed to provide the evidence that is needed to conclude whether CT screening can reduce lung cancer mortality. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Lung Cancer / 23.10.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Li C. Cheung, PhD Staff Scientist, Biostatistics Branch Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics NCI National Cancer Institute MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Using individualized risk prediction models to select individuals for lung-cancer screening will prevent more lung cancer deaths than current USPSTF guidelines (ages 55-80y; 30+ pack-years; smoke in past 15y). However, risk-based screening would lead to screening even more older smokers with comorbidities, for whom the harms of screening may outweigh the benefits. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Lung Cancer, Vaccine Studies / 28.09.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Naomi E Aronson, MD, FIDA, FACP Professor and Director, Infectious Diseases Division Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Bethesda, MD  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: BCG is a live attenuated mycobacteria vaccine used to prevent tuberculosis which has been reported to have associated nonspecific effects such as treatment of diabetes, bladder cancer, prevention of severe respiratory infections in children, and suppressed autoimmune responses. In earlier reports in the 1970s, results of epidemiologic studies were divided as to whether BCG vaccine was associated with subsequent rates of malignancy, specifically leukemia (protective) and non Hodgkins lymphoma (higher rates). To further evaluate these observations we studied cancer data collected in the 60 year follow up of a controlled trial of BCG in American Indian/ Alaska Native schoolchildren. (more…)
Author Interviews, CT Scanning, JAMA, Lung Cancer, UCSF / 23.09.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joshua Demb, PhD, MPH Postdoctoral Scholar, Moores Cancer Center University of California, San Diego Health Science Research Specialist Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Our study leveraged radiation dose data from 72 facilities performing CT scans around the United States to learn more about the radiation dose used for lung cancer screening scans, as well as possible institutional predictors that might be associated with higher dose.  Currently, the American College of Radiology has recommendations for how these low-dose lung cancer screening scans should be performed. However, it is unclear how much adherence there currently is to these guidelines. Our findings indicated that there is wide variation in the distribution of radiation doses for low-dose lung cancer screening scans both within- and between facilities in our sample—in some cases this variation led to doses higher than the ACR recommendations.   (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, End of Life Care, JAMA / 19.09.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Donald Sullivan, MD, MA, MCR Associate Professor of Medicine & Associate Fellowship Program Director Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Oregon Health & Science University Investigator, Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC) VA-Portland Health Care System  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
  • Patients with lung cancer suffer from considerable physical and psychological symptom burden and palliative care is underutilized or delivered too close to death to provide meaningful benefits for these patients. Palliative care is associated with improved quality of life for these patients, but the findings regarding a survival benefit are not clear.
  • Palliative care is distinct from hospice. Palliative care is meant to be delivered along with disease-modifying therapy and focuses on improving quality of life by addressing pain and other problems, including physical, psychosocial and spiritual for patients and their families. Hospice care is focused on reducing suffering, pain and anxiety at the very end of life; typically within a few months of death.
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AACR, Author Interviews, CT Scanning, Lung Cancer / 28.06.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Barbara Nemesure, PhD Professor, Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine Division Head, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Director, Cancer Prevention and Control Program Director, Lung Cancer Program, Stony Brook Cancer Center Renaissance School of Medicine Stony Brook University    MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death, claiming the lives of more than 150,000 people in the United States each year. While lung nodules are not uncommon, it has remained a challenge to differentiate those that will progress to cancer and those that will remain benign. Although numerous risk prediction models for lung cancer have been developed over the past 2 decades, the majority have been based on retrospective analyses or high risk groups with a strong history of tobacco use. To date, there have been a limited number of large-scale, prospective studies evaluating risk that a nodule will convert to cancer in the general population. This investigation aimed to construct a population-based risk prediction model of incident lung cancer for patients found to have a lung nodule on initial CT scan. The derived model was determined to have high accuracy for predicting nodule progression to cancer and identified a combination of clinical and radiologic predictors including age, smoking history (pack-years), a personal history of cancer, the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and nodule features such as size, presence of spiculation and ground glass opacity type. When compared to patients in the low risk category, those defined as high risk had more than 14 times the risk of developing lung cancer. Quantification of reliable risk scores has high clinical utility, enabling physicians to better stratify treatment plans for their patients.      (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Lung Cancer / 19.06.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Thomas A. Quinn, DO, FAOCOPM Clinical Professor Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine Bradenton  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Canine scent detection of lung cancer is showing evidence of being an effective, safe and cost effective method of early detection of lung as well as other types of cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths and early detection has proven to be one of the most effective ways to reduce the mortality and morbidity of this deadly disease.  In a collaborative study conducted by the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) and BioScentDX, a canine training and research facility, we were able to show that highly trained dogs can detect non-small cell cancer of the lung by scent alone.  For this study we chose to use Beagles because of their superior scent capability as well as their temperament, sociability and easy trainability.  The dogs proved to be able, in this double blind study, to detect lung cancer in blood serum with a 96.7% sensitivity and a 97.5% specificity. The dogs underwent an eight-week training program using the clicker/treat training method.  We trained four Beagles for this study but one of the dogs did not respond well to the training methods and had to be removed from the program. That dog was retrained as a service dog for a handicapped child. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Heart Disease, JACC, Lung Cancer, Radiation Therapy / 10.06.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:   Raymond H Mak, MD Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology Harvard Medical School Radiation Oncology Brigham and Women's Hospital       Katelyn M. Atkins MD PhD Harvard Radiation Oncology Program Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Brigham and Women’s Hospital Boston, Massachusetts     MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? 
  • Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide and nearly half of patients will require radiation therapy as part of their care.
  • Cardiac toxicity following radiotherapy has been well-studied in breast cancer and lymphomas, however the impact of cardiac toxicity following lung cancer radiotherapy has historically been under-appreciated due to the high risk of lung cancer death.
  • Recent studies highlighting cardiac toxicity following lung cancer radiotherapy have been limited by small numbers of patients and, to our best knowledge, have not included validated cardiac event endpoints defined by the American Heart Association (AHA)/American College of Cardiology (ACC).
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Author Interviews, BMJ, CT Scanning, Lung Cancer, University of Pittsburgh / 14.03.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Panayiotis (Takis) Benos, Ph.D. Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs Department of Computational and Systems Biology Associate Director, Integrative Systems Biology Program Department of Computational and Systems Biology, SOM and Departments of Biomedical Informatics and Computer Science University of Pittsburgh    MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans is the main method used for early lung cancer diagnosis.  Early lung cancer diagnosis significantly reduces mortality.  LDCT scans identify nodules in the lungs of 24% of the people in the high-risk population, but 96% of these nodules are benign.  Currently there is no accurate way to discriminate benign from malignant nodules and hence all people with identified nodules are subjected to follow up screens or biopsies.  This increases healthcare costs and creates more anxiety for these individuals.  By analyzing a compendium of low-dose computed tomography scan data together with demographics and other clinical variables we were able to develop a predictor that offers a promising solution to this problem.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Lung Cancer, Nature, Technology / 05.03.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Saeed Hassanpour, PhD Assistant Professor Departments of Biomedical Data Science, Computer Science, and Epidemiology Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Lebanon, NH 03756 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer for both men and women in the western world. The most common form, lung adenocarcinoma, requires pathologist’s visual examination of resection slides to determine grade and treatment. However, this is a hard and tedious task. Using new technologies in artificial intelligence and deep learning, we trained a deep neural network to classify lung adenocarcinoma subtypes on histopathology slides and found that it performed on par with three practicing pathologists. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Biomarkers, MD Anderson / 05.03.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulou, MD Professor of Medicine Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: 30% of patients with newly diagnosed advanced NSCLC can be treated successfully with targeted therapies, often yielding higher response rates than chemotherapy or immune checkpoint inhibitors. Selecting first-line therapy for patients with NSCLC requires assessment of an expanding list of guideline-recommended genomic biomarkers (EGFR, ALK, ROS1, BRAF, RET, MET amplification and exon 14 skipping, and ERBB2, with NTRK newly added) Standard-of-care (SOC) testing relies on tissue, which is limited by biopsy-related risks, specimen insufficiency, and lab processing duration, which hamper timely optimal treatment selection -          NILE is a large, prospective, multicenter, head-to-head study of SOC tissue-based genomic testing to plasma-based comprehensive cfDNA genomic testing (Guardant360®). For the four biomarkers with FDA approved therapies, up to 34% of patients were tested by SOC tissue testing versus 95% with cfDNA testing. NILE met its primary endpoint - cfDNA performed similar to tissue in the detection of guideline-recommended biomarkers and cfDNA results were delivered significantly faster than SOC tissue testing (median 9 days vs. 15 days).Using cfDNA testing first, 87% of patients with a guideline-recommended biomarker would have been detected, compared to 67% if SOC tissue testing was first. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, CT Scanning, JAMA, Lung Cancer, Medical Imaging / 01.03.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Martin C. Tammemägi PhD Senior Scientist Cancer Care Ontario | Prevention & Cancer Control Scientific Lead Lung Cancer Screening Pilot for People at High Risk Professor (Epidemiology) | Brock University Department of Health Sciences Ontario, Canada MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Some prediction models can accurately predict lung cancer risk (probability of developing lung cancer during a specified time). Good model predictors include sociodemographic, medical and exposure variables. In recent years, low dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer screening has become widespread in trials, pilots, demonstration studies, and public health practice. It appears that screening results provides added valuable, independent predictive information regarding future lung cancer risk, aside from the lung cancers directly detected from the diagnostic investigations resulting from positive screens. (more…)
Author Interviews, Compliance, Electronic Records, Lung Cancer, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 07.02.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Samuel Cykert, MD Professor of Medicine and Director of the Program on Health and Clinical Informatics UNC School of Medicine, and Associate Director for Medical Education, NC AHEC Program Chapel Hill, NC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Reports going as far back as the early 1990’s through reports published very recently show that Black patients with early stage, curable lung cancer are not treated with aggressive, curative treatments as often as White patients. These type of results have been shown in other cancers also. It’s particularly important for lung cancer because over 90% of these patients are  dead within 4 years if left untreated. In 2010, our group published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that showed that Black patients who had poor perceptions of communication (with their provider), who did not understand their prognosis with vs. without treatment, and who did not have a regular source of care ( a primary care doctor) were much less likely to get curative surgery. Also our results suggested that physicians who treated lung cancer seemed less willing to take the risk of aggressive treatments in treating Black patients (who they did not identify with as well) who had other significant illnesses. Because of the persisting disparities and our 2010 findings, we worked with a community group, the Greensboro Health Disparities Collaborative to consider potential solutions.  As these omissions were not overt or intentional because of race on the part of the patients or doctors, we came up with the idea that we needed transparency to shine light on treatment that wasn’t progressing and better communication to ensure that patients were deciding on good information and not acting on mistrust or false beliefs.  We also felt the need for accountability – the care teams needed to know how things were going with patients and they needed to know this according to race. To meet these specifications, we designed a system that received data from electronic health records about patients’ scheduled appointments and procedures. If a patient missed an appointment this umbrella system triggered a warning. When a warning was triggered, a nurse navigator trained specially on communication issues, re-engaged the patient to bring him/her back into care. In the system, we also programmed the timing of expected milestones in care, and if these treatment milestones were not reached in the designated time frame, a physician leader would re-engage the clinical team to consider the care options. Using this system that combined transparency through technology, essentially our real time warning registry, and humans who were accountable for the triggered warnings, care improved for both Black and White patients and the treatment disparity for Black patients was dramatically reduced. In terms of the numbers, at baseline, before the intervention, 79% of White patients completed treatment compared to 69% of Black patients. For the group who received the intervention, the rate of completed treatment for White patients was 95% and for Black patients 96.5%.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Lung Cancer / 21.10.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Yi-Long Wu, PI of CTONG1103 Tenured Professor of Guangdong Lung Cancer Institue, South China University of Technology (SCUT) Chair of Chinese Thoracic Oncolgy Group (CTONG) MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Patients with stage IIIA-N2 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are considerable heterogeneity with variable ipsilateral mediastinal lymph node involvement. Current treatment options for this group of NSCLC patients include surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy, neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation. The optimal strategy is controversial and neoadjuvant chemotherapy only give patients more 5% 5-year survival. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lung Cancer, Nature, NYU, Technology / 17.09.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aristotelis Tsirigos, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Pathology Director, Applied Bioinformatics Laboratories New York University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Pathologists routinely examine slides made from tumor samples to diagnose cancer types. We studied whether an AI algorithm can achieve the same task with high accuracy. Indeed, we show that such an algorithm can achieve an accuracy of ~97%, slightly better than individual pathologists. In addition, we demonstrated that AI can be used to predict genes that are mutated in these tumors, a task that pathologists cannot do. Although the accuracy for some genes is as high as 86%, there is still room for improvement. This will come from collecting more training data and also from improvement in the annotations of the slides by expert pathologists.   (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, CT Scanning, JAMA, Lung Cancer / 16.08.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “CT Scan” by frankieleon is licensed under CC BY 2.0Dr. Bruno Heleno MD PhD Assistant Professor | Professor Auxiliar NOVA Medical School | Faculdade de Ciências Médicas Universidade Nova da Lisboa  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The Danish Lung Cancer Screening Trial (DLCST) is a randomized controlled trial which enrolled 4104 participants (aged 50-70 years; current or former smokers; ≥20 pack years; former smokers must have quit <10 years before enrollment) to either 5 rounds of screening for lung cancer with low-dose CT-scans or to no screening. After 10 years of follow-up, there was a 2.10 percentage points lung cancer absolute risk increase with low-dose CT-screening. Overdiagnosis, i.e. the detection of cancer that would not progress to symptoms or death, was estimated at 67.2% of the screen-detected cancers. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Cancer Research, Lung Cancer / 01.08.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “smoking” by shira gal is licensed under CC BY 2.0Dr. Jose M. Martín-Sánchez IP of this study Grupo de Evaluación de Determinantes de Salud y Políticas Sanitarias Universitat Internacional de Catalunya Sant Cugat del Vallès Spain MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Breast cancer has been the first cause of death from cancer among women. However, the mortality rates of breast cancer have been decreased in the last years. This downward trend can be attributed to treatment and screening programs. On the other hand, smoking has been increased among women during the last century and the main cause of lung cancer is smoking behavior. Based on this data, we hypothesized that the lung cancer mortality could outweigh the breast cancer mortality in the next years and the main purpose of this study was to project the mortality rates of lung cancer and breast cancer in women worldwide, based in previous data and using Bayesian methods, in order to identify potential strategies of public health to reduce the impact of lung cancer. Moreover, previous works described the lung and breast cancer mortality or projected one of them in a single country. For example, we have published two articles with data of Spain one of them with the description of lung cancer mortality trend in men and women and other with the projection of lung and breast cancer among women. The information of this study provides an overall point view around the word of this problem of public health. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Gender Differences, Lung Cancer, NEJM, Smoking, Tobacco Research / 24.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Woman smoking” by Pedro Ribeiro Simões is licensed under CC BY 2.0Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PHD Scientific Vice President, Surveillance & Health Services Rsch American Cancer Society, Inc. Atlanta, GA 30303 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Historically, lung cancer rates have been higher in men than women at all ages because of the substantially higher cigarette smoking prevalence in men. However, cigarette smoking prevalences over the past few decades have become similar between young men and women. Consistent with this pattern, we previously reported the convergence of lung cancer rates between young men and young women. In this paper, we examined the lung cancer incidence rates in young women versus young men in the contemporary cohorts. We found that the historically higher lung cancer incidence rates in young men than in young women have reversed in whites and Hispanics born since the mid-1960s. However, this emerging incidence patterns were not fully explained by sex difference in smoking prevalence as cigarette smoking prevalences among whites and Hispanics were not higher in young women than young men. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Pulmonary Disease, Stem Cells, Transplantation / 21.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emmanuel Martinod MD PhD Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpitaux Universitaires Paris Seine-Saint-Denis, Hôpital Avicenne, Chirurgie Thoracique et Vasculaire, Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, UFR Santé, Médecine et Biologie Humaine, Bobigny, Université Paris Descartes, Fondation Alain Carpentier, Laboratoire de Recherche Bio-chirurgicale, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou Paris, France  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this exciting new technology and study? What are the main findings?  Response: What is the background for this exciting new technology and study? What are the main findings? Response:  The background is 10 years of research at laboratory followed by 10 years of academic clinical research. We demonstrated the feasability of airway bioengeenring using stented aortic matrices for complex tracheal or bronchial reconstruction.  (more…)
Author Interviews / 09.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ryo Nagashio, Ph.D. Department of Molecular Diagnostics School of Allied Health Sciences, Kitasato University Japan. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States and worldwide. The disease is associated with a poor prognosis because most lung cancers are only diagnosed at an advanced stage. The identification of patients at an early stage of cancer when it can be treated surgically is extremely important to improve prognosis. Current biomarkers for lung cancer include carcinoma embryonic antigen (CEA), sialyl Lewis X antigen (SLX), SCC antigen, and cytokeratin fragment (CYFRA) 21-1, but these are not sensitive enough to detect tumors early. The results of our study provide evidence that the CKAP4 protein may be a novel early sero-diagnostic marker for lung cancer. Across disease stages I-IV, the sensitivities of serum CEA, CYFRA, and SCCa are reported with 30-52, 17-82, and 24-39 percent, respectively. In this study, the sensitivity of serum CKAP4 was 81 percent in the training set and 69 percent in the validation set. These rates are higher than those of the current sero-diagnostic markers. Furthermore, the sensitivity of serum CKAP4 was also high even in stage I non-small cell lung cancer. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Cancer Research, Cost of Health Care, Kaiser Permanente, Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer / 02.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Matthew P. Banegas, PhD, MPH Center for Health Research Kaiser Permanente MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Despite a large body of research on cancer care costs, we observed a significant evidence gap. Namely, while about one-half of cancer diagnoses in the U.S. occur among people under age 65, it can be difficult to find good data on the costs of care for this population. That’s because most of the current literature on cancer care costs is based on SEER Medicare data, which are limited to Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. At a time of rising costs and an ever-increasing number of new therapies, we felt it was important to improve our understanding of cancer costs for U.S. adults of all ages. We examined medical care costs for the four most common types of cancer in the United States: breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lung Cancer / 02.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cary P. Gross, MD Department of Internal Medicine Section of General Internal Medicine Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center National Clinician Scholars Program Yale School of Medicine New Haven, CT  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In both the US and England, lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths, and there is particular concern about access to high quality care among older persons in both countries. However, little is known about how the two nations compare regarding lung cancer care. We studied over 170,000 patients with lung cancer, and found that patients in the US were more likely to be diagnosed at an early stage (25% in US vs 15% of patients in England).  Our international team also found that patients in the US were more likely to receive treatment for their cancer, and were more likely to survive. (more…)