Almeria's provincial hospital, Hospital de Torrecardenas, is participating in a three year research project being run by the Spanish Lung Cancer Group. The objective of the research is to demonstrate that the type of chemotherapy that metastatic lung cancer responds best to can be predicted by levels of a specific gene in the patients. Torrecardenas hospital is one of 40 hospitals taking part in the project which is studying 770 patients with metastatic lung cancer. The patients involved in the research all have an advanced form of cancer and the study aims to find ways to prolong life expectancy in these type of terminally ill people. The group hopes to extend the average life expectancy in these cases from four and a half months to seven months. At the moment there is no way to know what type of chemotherapy each individual case will respond best to and in some cases the wrong type of chemotherapy can actually be counterproductive, shortening life expectancy rather than prolonging it.
In Spain 20,000 new cases of lung cancer are detected each year, more than three quarters of which are in men. This is mainly attributed to the fact that the proportion of women in Spain who smoke has only risen significantly in recent years. Only twelve and a half per cent of those diagnosed with lung cancer here in Spain survive more than five years and this form of cancer is responsible for 18,000 deaths in Spain and 1,200,000 worldwide each year. The incidence of lung cancer worldwide varies in direct correlation with the number of smokers.
No comments:
Post a Comment