Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Doctors say Peter Jennings faces a difficult battle with lung cancer, a disease that is usually fatal and whose tumors kill more people than any other type.
Jennings plans to begin chemotherapy next week in New York, according to an e-mail sent to network employees Tuesday by ABC News President David Westin.
Jennings, who smoked for many years, has not provided details about the type of lung cancer or its stage. Chemotherapy can be used at any stage of cancer, says David Johnson of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Chemo can shrink tumors so they are easier to remove with surgery, which provides the best hope of a cure.
Chemo generally is given alone when tumors have spread too far to be eliminated with surgery, says Herman Kattlove, a doctor and editor with the American Cancer Society. Although doctors do not expect chemo to cure advanced disease, it can relieve pain and help patients live longer, he says.
Overall, 60% of lung cancer patients succumb within a year of diagnosis, the cancer society says. It estimates that more than 163,000 people will die of the disease this year. Only about 15% of patients are alive five years later.
Yet experts note that doctors have made important strides in just the past year.
* In November, the Food and Drug Administration approved a drug called Tarceva that shuts down growth signals inside tumor cells but causes few serious side effects, says Roy Herbst, chief of thoracic oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
* Scientists also have learned that patients whose tumors have certain genetic patterns often respond best to Tarceva and a similar drug called Iressa, says researcher Pasi Janne of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
* And in March, the maker of the drug Avastin, which cuts off tumors from their blood supply, announced that lung cancer patients live longer if they combine the drug with standard chemotherapy.
The best hope in reducing mortality from lung cancer, however, is to persuade people to avoid smoking, which causes nearly 90% of lung cancer deaths, says Len Lichtenfeld, the cancer society's deputy chief medical officer. After a smoker quits, ''the risk of lung cancer never completely goes away, but it will certainly be reduced.''
To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.usatoday.com
© Copyright 2004 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
