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Where There’s No Smoke
By Bob Hecker

A greater proportion of lung cancer patients are never-smokers. It’s a different disease and may require different therapy.

If 85 to 90 percent of lung cancer cases in the United States are linked to smoking tobacco, what’s behind the 10 to 15 percent of cases involving people who never smoked?

Medical scientists aren’t sure, but what they do know is that lung cancer in never-smokers is a biologically distinct disease from lung cancer in smokers, and one that sometimes can be treated differently with therapy targeting specific gene mutations.
“In the past decade, researchers have begun studying subtle biological differences in the lung tumors of smokers and of those who have never smoked,” says Gregory Otterson, MD, a medical oncologist and lung cancer specialist at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James). Otterson says carcinogens in cigarette smoke cause gene mutations that are often different from those found in lung tumors of people who have never smoked.
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Dr. Mary E. Reid joined the staff of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in 2002 as a Research Scientist in the Department of Epidemiology. She came to RPCI from the Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson, AZ, where she served as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health and Co-Director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Training Program. She completed her doctoral training in Epidemiology and Cancer in 1998 at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
She has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications, serves as a regular reviewer for several cancer, nutrition and epidemiology journals and as a regular adhoc reviewer for several NCI grant mechanisms.

Linebacker Chris Draft tackled tough for several NFL teams—and played to win. But, when the Redskins released him in 2010, he faced an opponent he couldn’t beat.

His fiancée, Keasha, who had never smoked, had stage four lung cancer.

Last November, chronicled in a poignant video that went viral, the two got married. With a beautiful white dress and an oxygen tank, Keasha walked the final few steps, and she and Chris exchanged vows.

Exactly one month later, Keasha died. She was 38.

Now Draft is a man on a mission, meeting with lung cancer groups and lobbying Congress to pass the “Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act,” which calls for the government to come up with a plan to cut lung cancer deaths in half by 2020.

This year alone, 160,000 Americans will die of lung cancer—by far the biggest cancer killer of all.

Even though smoking is the number one cause, the lung cancer alliance says the 60 percent of new lung cancer cases are people who quit—many decades ago—and 20 percent never smoked.

Ex-NFL linebacker Chris Draft knows about fighting for air, not due to smoking or a high altitude climb but because he lives with asthma that often landed him in the hospital. As much as he appreciated each breath during his football years, the fight behind it grew crystal clear when Keasha, his love at the time was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. She became the surprising face of lung cancer at age 37.

Keasha, once a Charlotte Hornets Honeybee dancer and a member of the Clemson University Rally Cat dance squad, struggled for breath and fought to dance, smile, and live even as her body weakened.

According to the CDC, more people die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer. Roughly 200,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer yearly (tens of thousands of them never smoked) and about 150,000 die from the disease each year. Its virulence tends to cause death within months rather than years. That is why Keasha and Draft could no longer allow their busy schedules and other priorities to interfere with their relationship.

They met in 2006 when Draft played for the Carolina Panthers. He moved on to the Rams team in 2007 and the Bills a couple of years later, and then the Bears, which made time with Keasha periodic. Retirement from the Washington Redskins in 2010 finally brought them together full time. Soon Keasha would learn about her advanced lung cancer. Eight months after the diagnosis, Draft asked for her hand in marriage. He wanted to spend every remaining breath with her as husband and wife, be it a day or a second.

On November 27, 2011, they sat side by side to solidify their union and stood side by side to solidify their fight against lung cancer with the launch of Team Draft, dedicated to raising lung cancer awareness and increasing badly needed research funding by shattering misconceptions about lung cancer as strictly a “smoker’s disease,” self-inflicted by poor life choices. Keasha, who never smoked, died of lung cancer in December 2011 after just five weeks of marriage.

In February, Team Draft, under the Chris Draft Family Foundation, took its campaign national in honor of Keasha’s courage during life. The organization issued a challenge to all current and former NFL players and fans to support the campaign by using social media to spread lung cancer awareness.

The website imparts trends in the prevention of lung cancer, the disease’s prevalence and mortality, and emerging treatments. It is a place to share personal stories and upcoming events by the Draft foundation and numerous partner organizations.

“Our national campaign to change the face of lung cancer,” said Draft, “gives us a frontline view of the state of lung cancer research and treatment in America. This is an exciting period in the history of lung cancer treatment. The use of state-of-the-art lung cancer screening techniques is reducing mortality rates by 20% in some groups, while cutting-edge, team-based multidisciplinary treatment procedures are improving the quality of life for lung cancer patients across the country.

“And,” added Draft, “thanks to advances in molecular tumor mutation testing, researchers and treating physicians are developing effective personal lung cancer treatments designed to extend and ultimately save lives.”

Early detection, as in the case of most cancers is critical. Symptoms may differ by individual or not appear at all. The more evident symptoms include shortness of breath, coughing that does not go away, coughing up blood, wheezing, chest pain, and repeated respiratory infections, such as bronchitis or pneumonia.

Better yet is lowering the risk of developing lung cancer by, as most Americans know, not smoking and by avoiding secondhand smoke. Less well known are the benefits of testing one’s home for radon gas and ionizing radiation, then correcting any problems. The CDC also recommends avoiding asbestos and any unnecessary medical radiation to the chest. Experts say treating chronic lung diseases and infections, likewise, can help, as does recognizing the risk of lung cancer increases with age and informing doctors of relevant family medical history.

“The key to making even greater strides (and alternatively saving lives) is funding,” concludes Draft, “but funding for lung cancer research is impacted by the “smoker’s disease” stigma. That’s why Team Draft is campaigning to change the face of lung cancer.”

Lung cancer can develop in anyone. Draft has taken this message nationwide to primary schools, universities, TV interviews, and to NBA and NCAA dance teams. During his stop in Philadelphia, he visited patients at Children’s Hospital and met members of the National Lung Cancer Partnership Pennsylvania chapter. He talked with students at the Philadelphia High School of Creative and Performing Arts about the importance of music and the use of music therapy to treat patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Similar stops were just made in Chicago and Northern California. Draft is now on route to the NFL’s Rookie Symposium in Canton, Ohio where he will speak to the latest rookie class about being leaders on the field and in the community. Along the way, this week’s schedule includes visits to Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Center in Washington, DC and the Roswell Park Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York. Such top cancer research treatment centers can look to Team Draft for a platform to reach more Americans, in addition to funding that extends their work.

Chris Draft wants the public to know that any success he has is not achieved alone. Respond and Donate Today

Courtesy of Gloria Blakely of the Philadelphia Charity Examiner

Ribbons have become a popular and easily recognizable symbol of hope and support for cancer patients, survivors and advocates, with different cancers represented by a rainbow of colors.
Local artist Jo Fleming took this concept and transformed it into “Ribbon of Joy,”a 39-foot-long modular painting that will soon be installed in Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center’s new infusion center. Fleming, from Great Falls, Va, hopes the artwork will provide an emotional lift to patients and their caregivers and promote positive energy and healing.

“We diagnose and treat in an atmosphere filled with creativity and hope,” says Nancy Morgan, director of the Georgetown Lombardi Arts and Humanities Program, who has worked with Fleming to bring the impressive piece to Georgetown Lombardi. “Jo captured our philosophy of caring for the whole person in her paintings. It fits us perfectly. The reference to cancer is subtle, yet every person with cancer who sees the paintings gets the message.”

Fleming visited Georgetown Lombardi to get a sense of the environment and people and was inspired by the elements of the space that were already present, such as a large, multi-color mobile in the center of the lobby. She then created “Ribbon of Joy,” which mimics the sense of warmth and care she witnessed. The painting features 13 vibrantly colored cancer ribbons that flow together through a changing landscape.

“I wanted to find a meaningful way to address the individual. I wanted the work to say ‘We are all in this together,’” Fleming says on her process of creating the painting. “Cancer affects almost everyone—ourselves, our family and friends—so I joined the ribbons to each other and allowed them to flow through a changing landscape.” Fleming, whose father died of esophageal cancer and mother-in-law of lung cancer, knows first-hand the effect cancer can have on a family.

“I hope the artwork welcomes and pulls the visitor into the moment, outside of his or her concerns and provides a little lift,” says Fleming.
To find out more about Jo Fleming, please visit http://www.jofleming.com.

By: Lauren Wolkoff and Alaina Farrish

According to this article by Lynne Eldridge MD, lung cancer in never smokers is considered to be the 6th leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.
Take into consideration the two following facts: Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer, killing more people than colon, breast, kidney, liver, prostate and melanoma cancers combined. Secondly, tobacco smoking accounts for approximately 87 percent of lung cancer deaths.
Here is another statistic that may come as a shock to some: Tobacco usage, both past and present, accounts for approximately 80% of lung cancers in women. That means that 20% of women with lung cancer have never smoked. It makes you think twice about the stigma associated with lung cancer, doesn’t it?
Smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke, asbestos, radon or other harmful carcinogens, a family history of lung cancer—all of these factors play a role in determining an individual’s personal lung cancer risk. It is important to take all of them into consideration, even if one is more prevalent than others.
Recognizing these risk factors is important; equally important, however, is the knowledge of how these factors impact your personal lung cancer risk, and taking charge to monitor your own personal risk.
According to data from the National Cancer Institute, the average five-year survival rate for a lung cancer patient is only 15%. If the cancer is caught in the later stages, after it has spread, that number can drop all the way down to 4%.
The key to fighting lung cancer is catching the disease in its earliest stages, when the five-year survival rate jumps to more than 50%.
We invite you to assess your personal lung cancer risk with this lung cancer risk calculator, developed with the help of clinicians from MD Anderson. Another available tool is the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center “Lung Cancer Prediction Tool,” which measures risk by taking various factors into account, including age, smoking history, gender and exposure to carcinogens.
By finding one’s propensity for lung cancer, people can get a feel for his or her potential for developing the disease before symptoms appear, and take precautionary action, such as seeing a physician, learning about various methods for early lung cancer detection, or taking action to lower try and lower your personal risk.
With the five-year survival rate so low and symptoms from the disease often not appearing until the late stages of the disease, there is a growing importance for early lung cancer detection methods—one of which is utilizing and understanding proper risk assessment tools.

Courtesy of Hello Have You Heard? Posted by Greg Stanley

Watch Dr. Keith Kelly discuss the value of early detection of lung cancer, how important it is to find lung cancer early, and how EarlyCDT-Lung may have impacted the life of a patient.

Watch the story of Barbara Champion, a lung cancer survivor, talk about her fight against lung cancer, the benefit of early detection, and her experience with EarlyCDT-Lung, a simple blood test which can aid in the early detection of lung cancer.

Dr. Gandara’s research interests focus on developmental therapeutics of new anti-cancer agents as well as preclinical modeling and clinical research in lung cancer. He is the principal investigator on an Early Therapeutics award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he leads an interdisciplinary team of clinical oncologists, pharmacologists, molecular biologists and statisticians in developing new anti-cancer agents in a variety of novel drug classes. He also leads a multi-specialty team in the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), an NCI-funded national clinical research organization, in studies related to improving therapies for lung cancer and developing predictive biomarkers of therapeutic efficacy. Dr. Gandara is also the UC Davis principal investigator for a multi-institutional collaboration (iGXT: integrated Genetically-engineered mouse models, patient-derived Xenografts, and Clinical Trials) between the NCI Center for Advanced Preclinical Research (CAPR) and Jackson Laboratory, an NCI-designated basic cancer center. The goal of this iGXT project is to develop better preclinical models to optimize cancer drug development and speed the transition to personalized cancer therapy.

Watch Cancer Treatment: Are Personalized Molecular Profiles in Our Future? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Thierry Jahan, M.D. is the one of the region’s foremost and highly regarded thoracic oncologists. Dr. Jahan has devoted his life to treating patients with lung cancer, mesothelioma and sarcoma. In addition to his keen clinical insight, Dr. Jahan is known by patients, their families and fellow clinicians for his sense of empathy and compassion. His commitment to wiping out lung cancer can be seen in the pins and ribbons that adorn his white coat, a message of hope he carries symbolically to patients as they battle a cruel disease.
Dr. Jahan received his M.D. from George Washington University. He completed his residency and an internal medicine fellowship at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, followed by a fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF. In 1994, Dr. Jahan joined the UCSF faculty and later, with Dr. David M. Jablons, cofounded the Thoracic Oncology Program. Dr. Jahan currently holds the title of Associate Professor of Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine.
Dr. Jahan has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Medical House Staff Outstanding Teacher Award and Friend of the Palliative Care Service Award. He is also a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American College of Physicians, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and the Association of Northern California Oncologists.
Dr. Jahan has authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and research abstracts and lectured nationally and internationally on lung cancer and mesothelioma. The San Francisco Chronicle, Time Magazine and KPIX in San Francisco have each sought out his insights and observations on the clinical and human side of battling serious life-threatening cancers.
Research Summary
Dr. Jahan is Principal Investigator on numerous thoracic oncology clinical trials. He has a particular interest in testing target therapies in non-small cell lung cancer malignant mesothelioma as either single agents or in combination with chemotherapy and/or radiation. Respond and Donate Today!