Source: Cancer Resource Room

Thoracic cancers are cancers of the organs in the chest cavity. In the chest are the lungs, heart, mediastinum (the space between the lungs), esophagus and thymus. There are special layers that line the space inside the chest and cover the chest organs. These can develop cancers too. The most common thoracic cancer is lung cancer.

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What's New in Thoracic Cancers?

A new discovery on the treatment of lung cancer...

Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center researchers have discovered a molecular marker that identifies lung cancer patients whose tumors will respond to treatment with the drug Iressa. "This discovery will help us significantly improve the treatment of many lung cancer patients and is also an important next step in the molecular targeting of cancer drugs," says Daniel Haber, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. Approved a year ago for deadly non-small-cell lung cancer, Iressa causes tumors to shrink significantly in a small percentage of patients, but some of those responses are rapid and dramatic. The drug acts by disabling the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) on the surface of lung cancer cells, halting signals that can lead to the uncontrolled growth of a malignant tumor. To understand why the drug worked so well for some patients but not others, the team screened samples from patients who participated in an Iressa clinical trial to search for mutations in the EGFR gene.

For more information, please contact: Center for Thoracic Cancers at 617-724-6862.

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