Tips, suggestions, and advice for how caregivers can be a partner to their loved one when at appointments. Starting with, asking how you can be helpful and what role they would like you to take.
Tumors that have the ALK protein fused with another cancer-driving protein, such as the EML4 protein, are often referred to as ALK-positive tumors. Approximately 5% of advanced-stage adenocarcinoma, a type of NSCLC, will test positive for an ALK-fusion biomarker. Treating patients with ALK-positive lung cancer with a class of drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has been an effective approach. However, as seen in other types of lung cancers treated with TKIs, eventually the tumors develop resistance to treatment and the tumor begins to grow again.
For World Cancer Day this year, the Union for International Cancer Control presents the #CloseTheCareGap initiative. February 4, 2023 will be a day focused on promoting equity in the cancer space.
While our bodies can have a wide range of naturally occurring, harmless mutations in different genes, some mutations, called driver mutations, are key to driving the development of cancer. In the early 2000s, EGFR was the first gene in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to be matched with a targeted therapy.
Her doctor was excited, which made Nina excited. They high-fived and couldn’t believe the progress that had been made in just a few weeks. The clinical trial was already having positive effects.
Before her clinical trial success, Nina went through the standard treatments for people with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). She was diagnosed in early 2014, and the plan was to try different chemo and radiation therapies.
Researchers have made tremendous progress in treating lung cancer by identifying key mutations in genes that drive the growth of lung cancer. Once these “driver” mutations are identified, researchers can work to target these mutations with specific treatments, called targeted therapies.
