Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of both men and women in the United States. Experts predict more than 164,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year and 157,000 will die. Boosting the Odds Only about 25 percent of lung cancer patients get chemotherapy.
Doctors rely on cutting out the tumors, and if they have spread, the patient is usually out of luck.
Schiller and other researchers told a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology that they had found a way to boost the odds a little. Unparalleled Survival Rates Gandara gave 81 patients with advanced lung cancer docetaxel along with standard chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The primary side effect was on the immune system. There are a variety of combinations that doctors are trying on the lung cancer patients who are considered candidates for chemotherapy, but no one knows which one might be best. There were no big differences.