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New Guidance Says Doctors Should Discuss Vaping as One Option to Help Adults Quit Smoking

Quitting smoking is one of the best things a person can do for their health—but it's also one of the hardest habits to break. Many smokers make several attempts before they successfully quit, even when using medications or nicotine replacement products. Now, a panel of tobacco treatment experts is encouraging healthcare providers to expand the conversation about smoking cessation by discussing nicotine e-cigarettes as one possible option for adults who smoke cigarettes. The recommendations, published in JAMA , were developed by the Harm Reduction Work Group of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco’s Treatment Research Network. Rather than promoting vaping, the group says clinicians should focus on helping patients choose the quit-smoking method that best fits their individual circumstances. A Personalized Approach to Quitting Smoking cessation isn't the same for everyone. What works well for one person may not work for another, which is why the authors recommend mo...
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Promising New Drug Shrinks Some Lung Cancer Tumors

Researchers say a new drug called crizotinib shows promise for treating specific types of lung cancer. In clinical trials,crizotinib reduced the size of lung cancer tumorsdramatically. Within 8 weeks of starting treatment ,lung cancer was stabilized in 87 percent of patient enrolled in Phase I/II clinical trials.

Lyudmila Bazhenova, MD, assistant clinical professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a member of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center says the first two trials are "encouraging", but the Phase III trials will determine if crizotinib will go to market. If so, approximately four percent of patients with a specific type of lung cancer would benefit from the drug.

Crizotinib works by inhibiting a specific enzyme present in approximately four percent of patients with NSCLC or non small cell lung carcinoma that results in the fusion of two genes - ALK and EML4 - that in turn produces an enzyme that promotes lung cancer tumor growth.

Lung cancer patients who were former light smokers, never smoked, or have the adenocarcinoma subtype of lung cancer are among the specific group of patients who might be helped by crizotinib.

In the Phase III trial researchers will compare crizotinib to standard chemotherapy. Those who fail chemotherapy will be treated with crizotinib at the end of the trial. In Phase I/II clinical trials, crizotinib reduced 57 percent of tumors in the patients studied, and after eight weeks 87 percent showed no progression of lung cancer.

Potential candidates for crizotinib treatment should call the clinical trials hotline at Moores UCSD Cancer Center at (858)822-5354. The trial will include patients with stage IV NSCLC lung cancer who have had at least one round of chemotherapy.

UC San Diego
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