A cure for lung cancer? Doctors hail incredible breakthrough with new drugs

Summary:

        There has been an discovery of an extraordinary new drug the clears tumors caused by lung cancer. Some scientist have hope that the drug could cure to patients of the disease. Once lung cancer has spread to other organs, the patients often die within months. Lung cancer is the biggest killer in Britain, claiming 35,000 lives a year. However, the new drugs, such as nivolumab, can stop the deaths.  Lungs cancer arise from epithelial cells lining the airways, and can travel around the body relatively fast due to its proximity with the pulmonary vein. Using nivolumab, over a quarter of 129 in the US have survived at least two years with known lung cancer. Those treated with the optimum dose, over 45% were alive in two years, a rare accomplishment. Nivolumab is one of a new type of drug called anti-PD1s and anti-PDL1s, which help the immune system recognized tumors as foes. However, it is still “a little early” to call these new drugs a cure, but the scientific community has hope. Using these new drugs, scientist witness tumors in patients shrunk to almost nothing, and are still well after three years from the treatment. Therefore, the new drugs suggest that the immune system can learn from intravenous therapy. The scientist hope to make the drugs even more effective.

Relevance:

This article relate both to the respiratory system, circulatory system, and (although not learned) the immune system. Lung cancer takes place in the lungs, but more specifically in the bronchi, which connect the lung with the trachea. The main purpose of the lung is to provide oxygen to oxygen-poor blood of the pulmonary artery and take out the carbon dioxide from the bloodstream, allowing the pulmonary vein to return oxygen rich blood to the heart. This is the part of the article that relates to the circulatory system. Since the lungs have such close contact with the pulmonary artery/vein, the cancer cells can flow into the bloodstream and be transported around the body, affecting other organs. Because of this, lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in the world. Finally, the article relates to the immune system, which there are allusions to a function of the system, which is to learn and recognize a ‘foe,’ which in this case is cancer.

Citation:

Author:

Stephen Adams

Date of Publication:

May 17, 2014

Article Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2631494/A-cure-lung-cancer-Doctors-hail-incredible-breakthrough-new-drugs.html