Study Urges Lung Cancer Trials to Include Survivors

Cancer survivors should not be excluded from clinical trials of new lung cancer treatments, according to a study that challenges common practice.

Researchers analyzed data from nearly 103,000 people older than 65 who were diagnosed with advanced lung cancer between 1992 and 2009. Of those patients, nearly 15% had survived previous cancers, including prostate, breast and gastrointestinal cancers.

Those who had survived an earlier cancer had 10% better overall survival and 20% better lung cancer-specific survival than those who had never been diagnosed with another cancer before getting lung cancer.

Link to the complete report on Medline Plus: http://1.usa.gov/1EJzIEO