Blood Pressure Drugs May Fight Lung Cancer

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"One thing, too, we're hoping, is that we'll be able to apply these drugs in combination with other current therapies, so we can reduce the amount of chemotherapies being used," she said, "because, of course, chemotherapy has such toxic side effects. So, maybe in a combined cocktail, we'll be able to really improve people's quality of life."

Gallagher stressed that even if the drugs only moderately enhance lung cancer survival that would still be a major advance.

"Even if everyone in the world who smoked stopped today, we'd still have lung cancer patients for decades, because it's a slow-growing disease," she said. "So, if this would work and reduce people's cancer or even give them an extra two years of life, that means a lot to somebody. When you've got cancer, every little bit helps."

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Dr. Bartolome R. Celli, professor of medicine at Tufts University and the chief of pulmonary care at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, was similarly optimistic.

"The rate of mortality for this disease is 95 percent over five years, which means this is the largest killer of all cancers for both men and women," he noted. "So, anything that would decrease mortality is welcomed. And, because they're working with a naturally-produced hormone, this work shows that we have the capacity to engineer new treatments that manipulate substances generated by the body, which is appealing, because it avoids the use of therapies based on substances not found in the body that are often toxic. So, this is a positive development."

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For additional information on lung cancer treatment, visit the American Cancer Society.

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