Lung Cancer

Not tobacco ban, new therapies key to combating lung cancer: Nobel laureate

The key to combating lung cancer is the development of novel immunotherapies and diagnostic techniques and not a complete ban on tobacco that is impossible to enforce, says American Nobel laureate Harold Varmus. Varmus won the 1989 Nobel Prize in Medicine - along with American immunologist Michael Bishop -- for the discovery of gene mutations that can lead to the transformation of a normal cell into a tumour cell and result in cancer. Dwelling at length on lung cancer, the leading cause of death due to cancer globally as well as in India, Varmus said, "Trying to prohibit tobacco or to ban tobacco entirely is a mistake because we know that you can't enforce complete prohibition. That is the kind of thing that leads to various forms of crime and it doesn't work." "I don't think bans work very well. But I do think that not just in India and every country, including the US, where we still have 18 per cent of our population smoking, we have people using nicotine vapes instead of ...

Air pollution may trigger lung cancer in non-smokers, discover scientists

Scientists have discovered a new mechanism through which very small pollutant particles in the air may trigger lung cancer in people who have never smoked

Explained: What is the controversy around J&J's talc-based baby powder?

Johnson and Johnson (J&J) has been facing several thousand lawsuits from women who claim that they developed ovarian cancer after using the product

Supreme head of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India passes away

The supreme head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India, Baselios Marthoma Paulose II, passed away in the early hours of Monday, a church spokesman said here. He was 74. His end came at 2.35 am at a private hospital in Parumala in Pathanamthitta district while undergoing treatment for post-COVID-19 complications, he said. The senior priest, who had been suffering from lung cancer since December 2019, had recovered from the COVID-19 infection in February this year. Baselios Marthoma Paulose II was the eighth Catholicos of the East in Malankara and 91st primate on the Apostolic Throne of St Thomas, the church said. He was enthroned as the Catholicos of the East & Malankara Metropolitan in November 2010.

Cancer cases may rise to 1.57 mn from 1.39 mn in next 5 years: ICMR report

According to the statement, tobacco-related cancer is estimated to contribute 370,000 cases which is 27.1 per cent of the total cancer burden in 2020

Diets with more fibre and yogurt tied to lower risk of lung cancer

Compared to people who never ate yogurt, those who consumed the most yogurt were 19 per cent less likely to develop lung cancer, the analysis found

Smoked ever? Exercise can reduce the risks of lung cancer, says research

"Aerobic exercise at moderate to vigorous intensity such walking, jogging, or elliptical for 20 to 30 minutes three to five times a week can improve cardiorespiratory fitness," says Vainshelboim

New immunotherapy for lung cancer may be effective, safe: Lancet

The study noted that the therapy is promising and can be delivered in an outpatient setting

Drugmakers try to find balance for immunotherapy treatment

By taking the brakes off the immune system and allowing the body's killer cells to home in on tumours, immunotherapy offers a different approach to toxic chemotherapy treatment

Are you adequately insured against critical ailments?

Use World No Tobacco Day to evaluate your financial preparedness vis-a-vis critical illnesses

Fit & Proper: Targeted treatment for lung cancer

Leena (name changed), 23, was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer two weeks after her post-graduation. She is an athlete, runs marathons and has never smoked. Yet, the statistics were stark: a 16 per cent survival rate. Accepting this diagnosis was the most difficult part for her. She feared the side-effects of chemotherapy, which she thought was her only option. Instead, I recommended a recent breakthrough targeted therapy: personalised medicine that comprises comprehensive genomic profiling. She was advised to take oral pill to target the cancer cells and precision medicine to target and destroy genetically mutated cancer cells. She has been taking the medicine twice daily with few side effects. This has helped put her cancer on pause.Lung cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells that start off in one or both lungs - usually in the cells that line the air passages. These cells, instead of developing into healthy lung tissue, divide rapidly and form tumours. Smoking is the