Just got done writing a letter to the editor of the Gainesville Sun in response to an article about lung cancer hitting a non-smoker. Here is the letter. I guess I can say it is published regardless of whether the Sun deems it fit for publication.

<—-

I want to thank you for your article about Caren Gorenberg and her struggle with lung cancer as a non-smoker. Caren’s fight is one that I am very familiar with as my wife of 10 years, Dianne, is an 18 month survivor of lung cancer. She is only 40 years old and is a life long non-smoker. Dianne and I have learned much about lung cancer in the last year and a half and have been surprised as many of your readers were to learn that lung cancer hits non-smokers as well a life-long smokers in devastating numbers.

In fact, if lung cancer in never-smokers were classified as its own disease, it would rank as the 6th deadliest cancer in the U.S., with more deaths (est. 23,905) in 2009 than leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, liver cancer, and ovarian cancer. Overall, lung cancer is far and away the number one cancer killer in the U.S. with over 152,000 (est) deaths in 2009 of smokers and non-smokers. Lung cancer kills as many people as the next four types of cancer, combined. Yet, lung cancer funding remains dismal. Funding for lung cancer treatment is less than 10% that of prostate cancer and only 5% of that for breast cancer when weighted on a per death basis.

I believe that the biggest problem facing lung cancer patients today is that most people believe that it is still a smoker’s disease. And smokers somehow deserve to get cancer. I am very aware that when telling my wife’s story, I am always sure to mention that she never smoked a day in her life; as I am sure you would too. It will only be when Americans stops thinking of lung cancer as a disease that smokers deserve; will there be true changes in the political will to dedicate the dollars needed for research to cure this horrible disease.

Joe Caridi

SOURCE:

Lung Cancer Alliance, http://www.lungcanceralliance.org

—->

Amazing speech at TED by Temple Grandin. If you want to know what it’s like to be autistic watch this; straight from the mouth of a successful autistic woman.

I just loved this exchange. What a great idea to talk face to face with the republicans. This is my favorite clip.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I can’t tell you how excited I am about what researchers recently discovered at Dana Farber Cancer Center.

Currently non-small cell lung cancer patients taking Tarceva (erlotnib) who have a response to the drug can expect an average response time of only 9 months. Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD of Dana Farber and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) has discovered a new medication, WX4002, that could eventually be used once the Erlotnib no longer works. And in fact, the new drug is expected to have fewer side effects.

“Dana-Farber investigators hypothesized that current agents lose their potency because they don’t bind as tightly or fully to the EGFR T790M protein as they ideally should. To improve the fit, researchers led by chemical biologist Nathanael Gray, PhD, prepared a group of inhibitors with a different structural scaffold, known as a pyrimidine core, which, it was thought, would mesh more thoroughly. They lab-tested the agents in NSCLC cells with EGFR T90M and found several that were up to 100 times more potent than quinazolines in restricting cell growth. As an unexpected bonus, these compounds were nearly 100 times less powerful at slowing the growth of cells with normal EGFR, suggesting they would be less likely to produce side effects than current drugs. The agent which performed the best is the pyrimidine WZ4002.”  – MORE

Let’s pray that they can develop this drug, get it approved by the FDA and get it to market quickly so that those patients currently on Tarceva can continue to survive.

Read the full article here.