Lung Health News, Spring Summer 2001
Lung cancer kills more people than any other form of cancer, yet when it comes to research funding, it is one of the least funded cancers. In fact, it is the leading cause of death from cancer for both men and women.
While any death from cancer is too many, the death rate from lung cancer is staggering. It claims nearly 160,000 lives every year, while 43,700 lives are lost to breast cancer, 37,000 to prostate cancer, and just over 56,000 to colorectal cancer. In 1999, lung cancer research received about $900 per death, compared to $9,000 per breast cancer death, $3,500 per prostate cancer death and $2,300 per colorectal cancer death.
Advances in surgery, radiation and chemotherapy have increased survival rates and significantly improved the quality of life for lung cancer patients. However, the overall five-year survival rate is still relatively low at 14 percent, compared to other cancers.
The lower survival rates are in part due to the fact that lung cancer is difficult to detect. The signs and symptoms may take years to appear and are easily missed.
Another reason survival rates are lower is that doctors and researchers still don’t know a lot about lung cancer. Barbara Driscoll, Ph.D., is hoping to eventually change that with more research into the basic understanding of lung cancer cells.
Driscoll made an interesting discovery while working on a project to examine lung cancer cell growth, which was funded by the American Lung Association of California’s research program.
She wanted to see what would happen to cancer cells if the levels of a protein needed for cells to divide and multiply were reduced. What she found was that when protein levels were reduced, the cancer cells divided much slower.
But what Driscoll also discovered was that when the protein levels were reduced at the same time growth factors were limited, cancer cells actually died.
"This was a very interesting discovery," she says. "I think it warrants further study."
But research is slow and costly. That’s why the American Lung Association of California is hoping to raise more funds for its research program on the 2000 state income tax form.
Californians can donate to the research program through the California Asthma and Lung Disease Research Fund on Line 63 of the state income tax form. Taxpayers just need to write in the amount they are willing to donate on Line 63 and then add it to the amount they owe in taxes, or deduct if from their refunds.
"We definitely need to do more research into lung cancer so that we can find better treatments," Driscoll says.
Related Links:
From CancerNet:
Up-to-date Information from the National Cancer Institute:
National Organizations That Offer Services to People With Cancer and Their Families
