Lung Cancer

• Lung cancer ranks as the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. It is also one of the most common cancers in the world. The majority of lung cancers are related to smoking.
  
  
• There are two major types of lung cancer: non-small cell lung cancer and small-cell lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer, which has three subtypes, is the most common form. Small-cell lung cancer, sometimes called oat-cell cancer, is less common and tends to spread quickly to other body organs early in the disease. Each type is treated differently.

Hutchinson Center researchers are developing innovative ways to prevent smoking and lung cancer:

Linking exercise and lung cancer risk – Hutchinson Center researchers have found that heavy smokers may reduce their cancer risk by increasing their exercise. Learn more »

Reducing teen smoking – Our researchers demonstrated that it's possible to use telephone counseling and other innovative measures to help adolescent smokers give up the habit. Learn more »

Using schools to study smoking – Our researchers led the 15-year Hutchinson Smoking Prevention Project, a school-based smoking prevention effort that touched 8,400 students and 600 teachers. The project found strong links between smoking in parents and their children. It also found that parents who quit smoking before their child reaches third grade will significantly reduce the child's odds of smoking. Learn more »

The Hutchinson Center's lung cancer experts are taking key step towards blood tests that detect lung cancer in its earliest stages:

Finding proteins that indicate lung cancer - Fred Hutch researchers led a team that discovered proteins in the blood associated with early lung cancer development. The advance brings us closer to a blood test to detect lung cancer. Learn more »

Detecting lung cancer in non-smokers - Fred Hutch researchers are leading an effort to discover early indicators of lung cancer in people who have never smoked. The studies are designed to improve understanding of lung cancer's biology and to develop a test to detect early-stage lung cancer. This work is important because global estimates suggest that as many as 25 percent of all lung cancers worldwide—15 percent of those in men and 50 percent of those in women—are not attributable to smoking. Learn more »

Developing innovative surgical approaches - Dr. Michael Mulligan and his colleagues at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, the Hutchinson Center's treatment arm, have developed a minimally invasive technique known as video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). Well suited for removing early stage lung cancer, the procedure works by inserting a tiny camera through a millimeters-long incision. This allows the surgeon to see inside a patient's chest and operate without the same impact to surrounding tissue that a traditional, open-chest procedure requires. Learn more »