Anschutz research fights against lung cancer

Positive results from a recent Anschutz study lead researchers to believe that a drug used to prevent high blood pressure may also prevent lung cancer.

Research on the drug, Iloprost, is in the second phase of three for Food and Drug Association approval.

Dr. Robert Keith, associate professor of pulmonary medicine at UC-Denver School of Medicine and associate chief of staff for research at Denver Veterans Administration Medical Center, claims Iloprost has been able to reverse damage in the lungs of people who have previously been smokers.

In the most recent study on the drug, tissue samples from the lungs of 152 study participants with lung disease were much healthier after six months of taking Iloprost.

Iloprost is not a new medication—it has been around for years and has previously been used to treat high blood pressure, or pulmonary hypertension, in the lungs.

According to Keith, lung cancer is one of the most under-recognized forms of cancer.

“Lung cancer accounts for more deaths than breast, colon, and prostate cancer combined,” said Keith.

Every year, over 400,000 Americans die of lung cancer, according to the American Lung Association.

Keith is encouraged by the results of the study because he views it as another way to potentially prevent death from lung cancer.

However, according to Keith, smoking cessation is the best way to prevent lung cancer.
In addition, the study found Iloprost to be ineffective for the 82 study participants who continued to smoke.

Regardless of its inability to stop lung cancer in current smokers, Keith feels that the drug will be a good preventative measure for smokers who have quit and those who have been exposed to second hand smoke.

“Prevention is the way to go when it comes to lung cancer,” said Keith.

Max Zurek, a UCD School of Architecture graduate student who has smoked for over ten years, said the existence of a drug that can reverse the effects of smoking on the lungs encourages him to quit smoking.
  

“It is easy to take a ‘damage has already been done’ attitude when it comes to smoking,” said Zurek. “It’s good to hear that there is a drug out there that may reverse that damage.”
  

Zurek and other smokers will have to wait for Iloprost to be available for lung cancer treament, though. Keith suspects that it will take two to three years and FDA approval before the drug is available to the public.

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