Lung Cancer

Disco legend Donna Summer, 63, died Wednesday night, reportedly of lung cancer. As of press time, her family hadn't released details about her illness, so it was unknown what type of lung cancer she had, and how long she may have been ailing. According to the American Cancer Society , lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men, killing more than 150,000 people per year -- more than colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers combined. In 2012, the group estimates, there will be about 226,000 new cases of lung cancer in the U.S. Survival rates of people with lung cancer are low. Only about half of people diagnosed with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (the more common type)

Disco legend Donna Summer, 63, died Wednesday night, reportedly of lung cancer. As of press time, her family hadn't released details about her illness, so it was unknown what type of lung cancer she had, and how long she may have been ailing. According to the American Cancer Society , lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men, killing more than 150,000 people per year -- more than colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers combined. In 2012, the group estimates, there will be about 226,000 new cases of lung cancer in the U.S. Survival rates of people with lung cancer are low. Only about half of people diagnosed with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (the more common type)

The finality settled in as Steve Blake sat by his cousin's bedside. Blake was a sophomore at the University of Maryland and was visiting Danny Ketchum in the hospital. Ketchum, whom Blake considered a hero, had been diagnosed at age 4 with a brain tumor and, at the time, given six months to live. Fourteen years later, in 2001, Ketchum's health now was failing. He wore a Terrapins jersey. And though he would die a week later, he wore a smile on his face. That was how Ketchum went through life; despite his illness, he maintained a positive attitude.

As an athlete, an Olympic swimmer with goals different from, say, someone who earns a living as a businessman or artist or construction worker, Eric Shanteau made decisions that might raise an eyebrow. In 2008, less than a week before the U.S. Olympic trials, Shanteau learned he had testicular cancer. Surgery was recommended. Immediately if possible. Shanteau chose to wait. He made the U.S. team and competed at the Beijing Olympics, where his father was able to watch and cheer for his son. Richard Shanteau had lung cancer in 2008, a disease that would kill him in 2010.

Teas from across the globe are becoming more and more popular in the U.S. One relative newcomer, yerba mate, is attracting fans for its allegedly jitter-free caffeine boost and high antioxidant content. Lab research suggests some potential health benefits from drinking yerba mate, but studies of lifelong yerba mate drinkers in the tea's native South America suggest the brew increases the risk of some cancers -- a fact most marketing campaigns omit.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a case on California's attempt to restrict sales of violent video games to minors. Both the California lawmakers who approved the law in 2005 and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges who overturned the law in 2009 claimed that scientific research was on their side. Lawmakers and judges aren't the only ones at odds over how to interpret research studies. Scientists who study media violence and its effects on children also are divided on what their results mean.

Screening smokers and ex-smokers with spiral CT scans can reduce lung cancer deaths by 20% without triggering too many dangerous or unnecessary tests that sometimes result from cancer screening programs, researchers reported Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. After conducting a more thorough analysis of data from a trial involving more than 53,000 patients, the researchers found that even though the scans produced many false-positive results — affecting 39% of those who were screened three times — there were few serious complications resulting from them.

An experimental drug called crizotinib sharply increases survival in lung cancer patients with a specific genetic mutation, researchers said Sunday. Although only about 4% of lung cancer patients carry the mutation, that still amounts to about 50,000 people worldwide, experts said. Researchers hope that other new drugs targeted at different mutations will be also developed and that combinations of such targeted drugs will prove even more effective in lung cancer. Lung cancer is the second-most-common form of cancer in the United States and the biggest cancer killer among both men and women, with 371,000 cases diagnosed each year and 159,000 deaths.

Three research groups announced Wednesday that they have identified a widely distributed genetic variation that appears to increase the odds of developing lung cancer. Although 80% of lung cancer cases are attributable to smoking, scientists have long known that genetics play a role. Family studies have shown that having a parent or sibling with lung cancer doubles or triples the odds of developing the disease. Yet finding the genes that predispose people to lung cancer has been difficult.

Jean Simmons, a radiant British actress who as a teenager appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in "Hamlet" and emerged a star whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s in such films as "Guys and Dolls, "Elmer Gantry" and "Spartacus," has died. She was 80. Simmons, who won an Emmy Award for her role in the 1980s miniseries "The Thorn Birds," died Friday evening at her home in Santa Monica, said Judy Page, her agent. She had lung cancer. "Jean Simmons' jaw-dropping beauty often obscured a formidable acting talent," Alan K. Rode, a writer and film historian, told The Times in an e-mail.

Researchers have called it the “Hispanic paradox”: When it comes to breast cancer, prostate cancer and heart disease, Latino patients in the U.S. survive longer after diagnosis than their non-Latino white and black counterparts  - even though studies have found they tend to have fewer resources and less access to care than non-Latino whites. It's the same for lung cancer, said scientists at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami in a paper published online Monday by the journal Cancer .  Querying a vast database that tracks U.S. cancer cases, the researchers looked at 172,398 patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer, a common subtype of the disease, in the U.S. from 1988 to 2007.

Screening longtime tobacco users for lung cancer would be less costly than the widely accepted practice of screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers and would reduce the death toll of lung cancer by an estimated 15,000 lives a year, according to a study released Monday that is likely to ignite debate on expanding healthcare coverage for smokers. Using the financial standards generally employed by health insurance companies, a group of actuarial economists calculated that annual low-dose CT scans of middle-aged Americans who have smoked the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes every day for 30 years would cost each insured American an extra 76 cents a month.

The finality settled in as Steve Blake sat by his cousin's bedside. Blake was a sophomore at the University of Maryland and was visiting Danny Ketchum in the hospital. Ketchum, whom Blake considered a hero, had been diagnosed at age 4 with a brain tumor and, at the time, given six months to live. Fourteen years later, in 2001, Ketchum's health now was failing. He wore a Terrapins jersey. And though he would die a week later, he wore a smile on his face. That was how Ketchum went through life; despite his illness, he maintained a positive attitude.

Bonnie Addario didn't even know there was a word for what was happening to her. As if lung cancer weren't bad enough, the 54-year-old had lost 30 pounds off her normally 130-pound frame. Her life was limited to her husband's Barcalounger, where she had to recline because she lacked the strength to sit up straight. "It affected everything I did," says Addario, who is alive and well nine years later in San Carlos, Calif. "I literally could not get up and down the stairs. " There is a name for what Addario experienced: cachexia.

The New York Yankees made a major push to bolster their starting rotation Friday, agreeing to terms with former Dodgers right-hander Hiroki Kuroda on a $10-million, one-year contract shortly after acquiring right-hander Michael Pineda from the Seattle Mariners. A person familiar with Kuroda's signing told the Associated Press the deal is contingent on the 36-year-old passing a physical. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the signing has not been announced.

I once suffered from clinical depression for a few months ["Infection … and Then OCD," Dec. 5]. There was no obvious cause, and my reactions to both herbal remedies and prescription drugs were strange. Then a routine annual physical exam revealed a prostate infection. The cure for the infection also cured the depression. It is wise to check for a purely physical cause for depression, especially if it has no obvious link to a traumatic event. George Tucker Redondo Beach Thank you for publishing Kathryn Joosten's experiences with battling her lung cancer and for pointing out how little funding is raised for this No. 1 killer ["Breathe In, Take a Quiz," Nov. 7]

As an athlete, an Olympic swimmer with goals different from, say, someone who earns a living as a businessman or artist or construction worker, Eric Shanteau made decisions that might raise an eyebrow. In 2008, less than a week before the U.S. Olympic trials, Shanteau learned he had testicular cancer. Surgery was recommended. Immediately if possible. Shanteau chose to wait. He made the U.S. team and competed at the Beijing Olympics, where his father was able to watch and cheer for his son. Richard Shanteau had lung cancer in 2008, a disease that would kill him in 2010.

Bonnie Addario didn't even know there was a word for what was happening to her. As if lung cancer weren't bad enough, the 54-year-old had lost 30 pounds off her normally 130-pound frame. Her life was limited to her husband's Barcalounger, where she had to recline because she lacked the strength to sit up straight. "It affected everything I did," says Addario, who is alive and well nine years later in San Carlos, Calif. "I literally could not get up and down the stairs. " There is a name for what Addario experienced: cachexia.

Miley Cyrus celebrated her 19th birthday recently with a cake--supposedly a Bob Marley cake. When she saw it, the singer/actress said, "You know you're a stoner when your friends make you a Bob Marley cake. You know you smoke way too much [expletive] weed. " And therein lies the latest video-spawned drug-related controversy about Cyrus, who last year appeared on grainy video smoking what she later said was salvia. She has since admitted the incident was a mistake, but the latest video has people wondering if the birthday quips suggest where there's smoke, there's marijuana.