Cancer tr B Y G E O R G E K O V A C I K
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or as long as I can remember, my grandfather smoked cigars. Unless he was in church, he usually had one lit up. Then one day he developed a cough he couldn’t shake. He knew something was wrong when he didn’t have the energy to play golf every day — something he did for more than 20 years. Doctors told him he had stage-IV lung cancer, and after a short, painful battle, he passed away.
20 䡲 VOLUME 4, NUMBER 4
Dr. Shanda Blackmon
Stage IV is the most advanced stage of any cancer because it has spread (metastasized) to the bones or other organs. Survival rates, unfortunately, are very low at this stage. Most stage-IV lung cancer patients, for example, do not last a year, while those with kidney cancer may survive for up to five years.
Researchers at The Methodist Hospital are conducting new studies for advanced cancer that may benefit stage-IV patients like my grandfather Ben Russotto. He probably wouldn’t have been cured, but he certainly would have had a little more time in life if he had been on the right side of a breakthrough in this field.
Researchers are testing the drug EC-145 in studies designed to treat people with stageIV lung cancer; and advanced and recurrent ovarian and endometrial cancer. Made up of components that prevent changes in DNA that may lead to cancer and anticancer drugs that inhibit cancer cell growth, EC-145 targets the tumor and kills cancer cells. WWW.METHODISTHEALTH.COM
