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This week on Health Watch, we’re talking about some recent findings in cancer research. A nationwide study has found that a new drug is effective for treating the most common kind of lung cancer.
The drug works by choking off the blood supply to tumors while still allowing chemotherapy drugs to be delivered to the tumors. The drug, used together with chemotherapy, resulted in a 20 percent improvement in overall survival. Dr. Joan Schiller, chief of hematology and oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and chairwoman of the group that designed and conducted the study, says this is great news for lung cancer patients. The drug improve survival rates, and it doesn’t have the kind of negative side effects associated with chemotherapy, such as hair loss and nausea. There are several other drugs like this one that are being developed.
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January 2007
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