Read time: 5 minutes. This is Part 3 in our series on how drugs get approved to treat lung cancer. Part 1: Understanding Clinical Trials - Why Are They Important for Drug Development? Part 2: How We Define Success for a Clinical Trial The United States federal government aims to regulate prescription drugs to ensure people are receiving medication that’s safe and effective. Every prescribed drug in the U.S. has gone through a rigorous testing process that can take over a decade to complete before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the drug and people can benefit from

Read time: 6 minutes. This is Part 2 of 3 in our series on how drugs get approved to treat lung cancer. Make sure to read Part 1 on the phases of clinical trials and why they are important for new drug development. We all want a treatment for lung cancer that is completely safe and entirely effective. While researchers are working toward that goal, the reality is we aren’t there yet. Every treatment we are considering comes with potential benefits and side effects. The overarching role of clinical trials is to measure the pros and cons of each drug to help us identify the best treatments for

Read time: 3 minutes. This is Part 1 in a 3-part series explaining how new drugs and treatments get approved to treat lung cancer. Parts 2 and 3 will be published in the coming weeks. Have you ever wondered how a new medicine or drug to treat lung cancer is brought to the people who need it? That’s what clinical trials help us do. According to the National Cancer Institute, a clinical trial is a type of research study that tests how well new medical approaches (such as screening tests, prevention habits, or disease treatments) work in people. Sometimes, a clinical trial is called a clinical

Read time: 3 minutes. One of LUNGevity’s two flagship survivorship events, the International Lung Cancer Survivorship Conference (ILCSC), is being held virtually September 20 – 21, 2024. This is a free, online event that allows people with lung cancer and caregivers from around the world to join from the comfort of their own homes and hear from a star-studded lineup of lung cancer experts discussing the latest advances in research and treatment. You can register today for free, or view the conference agenda. Last year’s conference was one of our most successful events yet, with over 900

Read time: 2 minutes. Traditionally, people associate getting involved in lung cancer research with enrolling in a clinical trial. But most don’t realize they can also partner with researchers behind the scenes and get involved in designing clinical trials. In the first of a three-part series, Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research has partnered with LUNGevity to understand the role people with lung cancer can play in developing clinical trials. Through panelist presentations and discussions, this video focuses on patient-centric endpoints, showcases this collaboration from the

Read time: 8 minutes Thousands of oncologists, scientists, biotech and pharmaceutical representatives, patients, and advocates (including LUNGevity staff) met to discuss lifesaving cancer research at the  annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago from May 31 through June 4, 2024. The theme for this year’s conference, “The Art and Science of Cancer Care: From Comfort to Cure,” highlighted the importance of using both our creativity and our scientific prowess to increase access to treatment.   It’s a time when we’ve made and continue to make extraordinary

Read time: 2 minutes The question of whether lung cancer is hereditary is becoming increasingly important in the lung cancer community. While the average age of lung cancer diagnosis is approximately 70 years old, we are now seeing young adults in their 20s and 30s getting lung cancer. We currently suspect lung cancer in young adults may be caused by environmental factors (such as air pollution or chemical exposure), their genetic make-up, or some combination of these factors. We cannot say for certain if lung cancer is hereditary, but researchers are working to understand the causes of lung

Young adults (less than 50 years of age) are being diagnosed with lung cancer at increasing rates. They tend to be women of Hispanic or Asian descent and are typically diagnosed with advanced-stage lung cancer. Research is ongoing to help us develop effective options to treat these patients medically, but little is known about the effects of the diagnosis on their mental, social, and financial health or their family planning. To help us better understand the needs of this growing population, LUNGevity awarded one of its 2022 Health Equity and Inclusiveness Junior Investigator Awards to Narjust

Read time: 4 minutes Lung cancers that test positive for the RET biomarker are often treated with targeted therapy. While this type of treatment has improved the duration and quality of life for many people living with lung cancer, we know that eventually these tumor cells develop drug resistance and begin to grow again. Researchers have been trying to understand what causes this drug resistance so we can develop treatment approaches to extend the time patients can effectively be treated with targeted therapies. Two signaling pathways, involving EGFR and MET proteins, are thought to be key

Advances in targeted therapies have allowed us to treat some types of lung cancer with mutations in specific genes (for example, EGFR, KRAS, and RET). This has given some patients with lung cancer a better quality of life and longer survival. However, even after an initial response to the targeted therapy, lung tumors will eventually grow again. Research suggests this drug resistance is likely to involve drug-tolerant persister cells, or DTPCs—cells that tolerate the drug and persist after treatment. DTPCs pose a major challenge for treating many types of cancers, including lung cancer. To