COMMON CANCERS AND CANCER TRIALS

HER2-Positive breast cancer is extremely aggressive, and cancer trails are underway using medications like Tykerb and Herceptin to help women battling breast cancer live longer. Individually drugs like Herceptin have been proven to help many women with breast cancer, but now the two drugs are being tried together. According to the study information, 8,000 women in 50 countries will be enrolled.

There were an estimated 162,000 deaths in 2008 in the United States alone from lung cancer. Lung cancer is a massive killer, affecting more than just smokers. However, smokers continue to lead in lung cancer deaths. For this reason there are several stop smoking trials underway to try to mitigate the lung cancer deaths related to smoking. Most of these trials use nicotine to help wean the smoker down, though others use nicotine replacements and suppression therapy to curb cravings. The goal is to eliminate smoking altogether in order to reduce instances of lung cancer.

Mouth cancer is also an unfortunate smoking-related disease, though mouth cancer can also come from other vices such as alcohol. About 75% of mouth cancers are associated with tobacco use, be it via smoking or chewing. If a person smokes and drinks their risk of mouth cancer is greatly increased when compared to a person who does just one or the other.

Skin cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer, more so than lung cancer or breast cancer. Skin cancer is the second most common cancer in the 18-38 age group. Skin cancer is mostly caused by cumulative exposure to the sun. Peplin Limited conducted a trial of its topical gel PEP500 to positive initial results. Still, the most common treatment is surgery and/or chemotherapy to remove and treat skin cancer.