De Amsterdamse burgemeester Eberhard van der Laan legt zijn taken per direct neer. In een brief aan alle Amsterdammers schrijft de 62-jarige Van der Laan dat zijn artsen hem niet meer kunnen behandelen aan zijn longkanker.

Zijn taken worden voorlopig overgenomen door loco-burgemeester Kajsa Ollongren. Zij deed dat de laatste maanden al voor een deel.

Van der Laan richt zich nu volledig op zijn gezin en zijn naasten, zegt een woordvoerder van de gemeente, die verder niet wil speculeren over de procedure rond een nieuwe burgemeester.

De PvdA'er Van der Laan trad in de zomer van 2010 aan als burgemeester van Amsterdam. Eerder was hij onder meer advocaat en minister voor Wonen, Wijken en Integratie.</s>"In januari schreef ik u dat ik slecht nieuws had gekregen van mijn artsen, maar dat ik nog een poosje uw burgemeester hoopte te blijven", schrijft Van der Laan in een brief aan de inwoners van Amsterdam [pdf]. "De afgelopen acht maanden heb ik dat met veel plezier gedaan. Uw steun heeft mij daarbij enorm geholpen."

'Liefste stad'

"Het was een groot voorrecht burgemeester te zijn van de mooiste en liefste stad van de wereld", schrijft Van der Laan. "Zorg goed voor onze stad en voor elkaar." Een woordvoerder zegt dat de burgemeester zich de komende tijd op zijn gezin wil richten. Zijn taken worden voorlopig overgenomen door locoburgemeester Kajsa Ollongren.

De 62-jarige Van der Laan (PvdA) trad in 2010 aan als burgemeester. Daarvóór was hij minister voor Wonen, Wijken en Integratie geweest in het vierde kabinet-Balkenende. Van 1990 tot 1998 zat hij in de Amsterdamse gemeenteraad.

'Nederland leeft mee'

"Heel verdrietig nieuws", reageert minister-president Mark Rutte op het bericht over Van der Laans terugtreden. "Bewondering voor zijn moed en openheid", schrijft hij op Twitter. "Hem laten weten dat Nederland meeleeft met hem en zijn gezin."

Ook andere politici reageren bedroefd op het nieuws. "Wat zijn we trots op hem", schrijft mede-PvdA'er en minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Ronald Plasterk. D66-voorman Alexander Pechtold noemt Van der Laan 'een gedreven bestuurder en prettig mens'.</s>Amsterdam's mayor, who has been gravely ill for several months, has officially stepped down from office, prompting an outpouring of grief and admiration in the Netherlands.

Eberhard Van der Laan, who was diagnosed with metastasised lung cancer, said in a letter on Monday that all options of treatment were exhausted and that he could no longer fulfil his duties.

"Your support has helped me enormously," he said. "It was a great privilege to be the mayor of the prettiest and dearest city in the world."

He went on to thank Amsterdam's citizens for placing their trust in him for the past seven years and for working with him in times of "both agreement and objection".

Van der Laan, considered by many as the most popular Dutch politician in recent years, is known for his no-nonsense approach in local politics, which earned him an ever-increasing fan base in the Netherlands.

Many used #VanderLaan on Twitter to express their support for the Labour Party politician, while Dutch media called the mayor a "folk hero".

Prime Minister Mark Rutte reacted on Twitter, calling it "very sad news," and expressing "admiration for his courage and openness".

Rutte added that the whole country "empathises with him and his family".

In 2013, Van der Laan, a heavy smoker, was also treated for prostate cancer.

He was given a 7.7 score on his job performance in 2015, a particularly high score, according to daily newspaper De Volkskrant.

On Facebook, people called for a public round of applause at his mayoral residence on Wednesday.

This summer, Van der Laan, 62, appeared in a wide-ranging TV interview that drew over a million viewers, who watched the live broadcast in bars and theatres across the city.

The host of the programme asked what the mayor hoped would be his legacy in the Dutch capital.

"That it remains the kind city it is," he said, while fighting tears.</s>(Reuters) - The U.S. Medicare program is proposing to add lung cancer screening tests for beneficiaries with a history of heavy smoking, the federal government announced on Monday.

Screening for lung cancer with CT scans is not currently covered under the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

Current and former smokers age 55 to 74 who show no signs of lung disease but meet criteria for tobacco smoking history would be eligible for an annual low-dose computed tomography scan as a preventive service benefit, said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees Medicare.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men and women in the United States.

An annual low-dose screening test for individuals at high risk has the potential to dramatically improve lung cancer survival rates by finding the disease at an earlier, more treatable stage, the American Lung Association said in a statement.

A study of Medicare beneficiaries with a history of heavy smoking released in May found that new lung cancer screening guidelines could double the proportion of lung cancers found at an early stage.</s>LONDON (Reuters) - Lung cancer can lie dormant for more than 20 years before turning deadly, helping explain why a disease that kills more than 1.5 million a year worldwide is so persistent and difficult to treat, scientists said on Thursday.

Two papers detailing the evolution of lung cancer reveal how after an initial disease-causing genetic fault -- often due to smoking -- tumor cells quietly develop numerous new mutations, making different parts of the same tumor genetically unique.

By the time patients are sick enough to be diagnosed with cancer, their tumors will have developed down multiple evolutionary pathways, making it extremely hard for any one targeted medicine to have an effect.

The findings show the pressing need to detect lung cancer before it has shape-shifted into multiple malignant clones.

“What we’ve not been able to understand before is why this is really the emperor of all cancers and one of the hardest diseases to treat,” said Charles Swanton, an author on one of the papers from Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute.

“Previously, we didn’t know how heterogeneous these early-stage lung cancers were.”

Lung cancer is the world’s deadliest cancer, killing an estimated 4,300 people a day, according to the World Health Organization. Around 85 percent of patients have non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the type analyzed in the two studies.

To get a clearer understanding of the disease, the two groups of British and American scientists looked at genetic variability in different regions of lung tumors removed during surgery and worked out how genetic faults had developed over time.

What they found was an extremely long latency period between early mutations and clinical symptoms, which finally appeared after new, additional faults triggered rapid disease growth.

In the case of some ex-smokers, the initial genetic faults that started their cancer dated back to the time they were smoking cigarettes two decades earlier. But these faults became less important over time and more recent mutations were caused by a new process controlled by a protein called APOBEC.

The research was published in the journal Science.

Ramaswamy Govindan of Washington University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the studies, said better understanding of such genetic alterations was key to developing more effective treatments.

There are also hopes for a new generation of immunotherapy drugs that boost the immune system’s ability to detect and fight tumors, which could be particularly applicable to lung cancer.

“The large number of mutations may be the tumor’s Achilles heel because every time a new mutation forms there is a chance for the immune system to recognize it,” Swanton told Reuters.

Immunotherapy drugs from companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck & Co, Roche and AstraZeneca are already undergoing tests in lung cancer, with data on Bristol’s medicine Opdivo due later this year.

Apart from better drugs, a critical challenge is to find improved ways to detect lung cancer before it develops the multiple genetic faults that eventually trigger rapid tumor growth and spread.

Currently, doctors use computerized tomography (CT) to detect lung cancer -- but by the time a nodule is big enough to be spotted it on a scan it may contain a billion genetically diverse cancer cells.

For the future, oncologists are pinning hopes on a new approach, known as liquid biopsy, that may be able to detect signs of cancer much earlier from DNA circulating in the blood.

The current prognosis for NSCLC is grim, with most patients diagnosed when the disease has already spread and only around 15 percent surviving for at least five years after that.</s>People living with HIV who adhere to antiretroviral therapy but smoke tobacco cigarettes are more likely to die from lung cancer than from AIDS, a study led by an Indian-origin researcher has revealed. The findings showed that overall people with HIV who take antiviral medicines but who also smoke are six to 13 times more likely to die from lung cancer than from HIV/AIDS, depending on the intensity of smoking and their sex.

“Smoking and HIV are a particularly bad combination when it comes to lung cancer,” said lead author Krishna Reddy, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

“Lung cancer is now one of the leading killers of people with HIV, but most of these deaths can be prevented,” added Rochelle Walensky, Professor at Harvard Medical School. Among men who continued to be heavy smokers, an estimated 29 per cent would die of lung cancer by age 80, as would 23 per cent of moderate smokers and 19 per cent of light smokers.

For women who continued to be heavy smokers, an estimated 29 per cent would die of lung cancer by age 80, as would 21 per cent of moderate smokers and 17 per cent of light smokers. “The data tell us that now is the time for action: smoking cessation programmes should be integrated into HIV care just like antiviral therapy,” Reddy said in the paper published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. However, among those who managed to quit smoking at age 40, only about six per cent die of lung cancer.

“Quitting smoking is one of the most important things that people with HIV can do to improve their health and live longer,” suggested Travis Baggett, Assistant Professor at the Harvard Medical School. Besides reducing the risk of lung cancer, quitting will also decrease their risk of other diseases such as heart attack, stroke and emphysema, the researchers said.

For all the latest Lifestyle News, download Indian Express App</s>People with HIV who smoke cigarettes are 10 times more likely to die from lung cancer than from HIV, a study has found.

Those diagnosed with HIV are living longer because of the increasingly effective antiviral medications that have been developed in the last 10 years.

But prevention from lung cancer has not developed at a similar rate.

More than 40 percent of people living with HIV in the United States smoke, compared with 15 percent of the general adult population.

And researchers say that lung cancer prevention through smoking cessation should be a priority in the care of people living with HIV.

Those who smoke and have HIV are 10 times more likely to die from lung cancer than the viral disease, a study claims. More than 40 percent of people who live with HIV smoke, which is significantly higher than the general public. Researchers say doctors should also focus on stopping patients from smoking who have been diagnose with HIV (file photo)

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) analyzed people in the United States who have HIV and their risk of developing lung cancer.

They looked at people with HIV who were current, former and never smokers, as well as how many cigarettes they smoked per day.

Each person's risk was also determined if they consistently took their antiviral medication for HIV.

Risk of other diseases, such as heart disease, were accounted for because they typically increase when someone is smokes cigarettes.

How medication has helped decrease the risk of infections and death from HIV Antiviral medication helps with HIV but does not cure it. When these are taken in combination, though, they can help prevent the spread of the virus. When the virus is slowed down, it can also slow down the HIV disease, which helps prevent it from killing the body. These drugs are normally used in combination to give the body what it needs to slow down the virus. Another drug used is Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which is a course of HIV drugs taken before sex to reduce the risk of getting HIV. Trials have shown PrEP significantly reduces HIV transmission among those at-risk of infection. Taking PrEP before sex means there is just enough of certain drugs in a person's body to prevent an HIV infection taking hold. Such drugs can be taken every day or as soon as two hours before having sex. Those eligible for the treatment include gay or bisexual men, transgender people and those with HIV-positive partners who are not successfully receiving treatment.

'Lung cancer is now one of the leading killers of people with HIV, but most of these deaths can be prevented,' said Dr Rochelle Walensky, chief of the MGH Division of Infectious Diseases and senior author of the study.

People with HIV are living longer now thanks to antiviral medications, but smoking and HIV together put them at risk of developing lung cancer at a rate even higher than that among smokers not infected with HIV.

'Smoking and HIV are a particularly bad combination when it comes to lung cancer,' said Dr Krishna Reddy, MD, of the MGH Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and the Medical Practice Evaluation Center (MPEC), who led the study.

'Smoking rates are extraordinarily high among people with HIV, and both smoking and HIV increase the risk of lung cancer.'

The researchers found that nearly 25 percent of people who consistently take their anti-HIV medications but continue to smoke will die from lung cancer.

Among smokers who quit at age 40, only about six percent will die of lung cancer.

Heavy smokers are at an even higher risk for lung cancer, with risks approaching 30 percent.

When the researchers focused on people who do not perfectly follow recommended HIV treatment - and who are thus at greater risk of dying from HIV/AIDS - lung cancer was still estimated to kill more than 15 percent of smokers.

Dr Travis Baggett, researcher with the MGH Division of General Internal Medicine and the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center and co-author of the study, said: 'Quitting smoking is one of the most important things that people with HIV can do to improve their health and live longer.'

'Quitting will not only reduce their risk of lung cancer but also decrease their risk of many other diseases, such as heart attack, stroke, and emphysema.'

More than 40 percent of people living with HIV in the US smoke, compared with 15 percent of the general adult population.

Given how common smoking is, the researchers also projected the total number of expected deaths from lung cancer among people currently receiving HIV care in the US, taking into account current smoking rates and the inconsistent use of antiviral therapy that is frequently seen.

They found that nearly 60,000 will die from lung cancer - about 10 percent of all people who are receiving HIV care in the US, including both smokers and nonsmokers.

Dr Reddy said: 'Now is the time for action. Smoking cessation programs should be integrated into HIV care, just like antiviral therapy.'</s>People living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), who adhere to antiretroviral therapy but smoke cigarettes, are about 10 times, more likely to die of lung cancer than from the AIDS virus itself, according to a new study.

“Smoking and HIV are a particularly bad combination when it comes to lung cancer,” said Krishna Reddy of the Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the study, in a statement.

“Smoking rates are extraordinarily high among people with HIV, and both smoking and HIV increase the risk of lung cancer, “ she said.

The report, published in the US journal JAMA Internal Medicine, suggested that lung cancer prevention through smoking cessation should be a priority in the care of people living with HIV.

Using a computer simulation model of HIV, the researchers found that nearly 25 percent of people who adhere well to anti-HIV medications but continue to smoke will die of lung cancer.

Heavy smokers are at even higher risk for lung cancer, with risks of lung cancer death approaching 30 percent.

Overall, people with HIV who take antiviral medicines but who also smoke, are from six to 13 times more likely to die from lung cancer than from HIV/AIDS, depending on the intensity of smoking and their sex.

When the researchers focused on people who do not perfectly follow recommended HIV treatment — and who are thus at greater risk of dying from HIV/AIDS — lung cancer was still estimated to kill more than 15 percent of smokers.

However, among smokers who quit at age 40, only about six percent will die of lung cancer.

More than 40 percent of people living with HIV in the United States smoke, compared with 15 percent of the general adult population.

Given how common smoking is, the researchers also projected that nearly 60,000 will die from lung cancer — about 10 percent of all people who are receiving HIV care in the United States, including both smokers and nonsmokers.

“These data tell us that now is the time for action: smoking cessation programs should be integrated into HIV care, just like antiviral therapy,” Reddy said. (Xinhua)</s>Oct 30 (Reuters) - Treatment of advanced squamous cell non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s experimental immunotherapy nivolumab led to a one-year survival rate of 41 percent in a midstage clinical trial, according to data being presented at a medical meeting.

While the study called CheckMate-063 did not compare nivolumab with another drug or placebo, the historical one-year survival rate for patients like those in the trial, whose cancer had progressed after treatment with two or more prior therapies, is between 5.5 percent and 18 percent, the company said.

Nivolumab belongs to a highly promising new class of drugs called PD-1 inhibitors that block a tumor’s ability to camouflage itself, allowing the body’s immune system to recognize and attack the cancer. Merck & Co last month received the first U.S. approval of a drug from the class to treat advanced melanoma - the deadliest form of skin cancer.

“The Phase II findings from CheckMate-063 are encouraging as there are no effective treatment options for patients with refractory squamous cell lung cancer after their disease has progressed through two prior therapies,” Dr Suresh Ramalingam, director of Medical Oncology at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, said in a statement.

Bristol-Myers, which has proposed the brand name Opdivo for nivolumab, plans to use the data as part of its rolling submissions seeking U.S. and European approvals.

The median overall survival in the 117-patient trial was 8.2 months. The median duration of response had not yet been reached.

The objective response rate (ORR), which was the primary goal of the trial, was 15 percent as assessed by an independent review committee. That compares with historical expectations in the single digits, the company said. ORR was defined as reduction of the target lesion of at least 30 percent with no new lesions.

The results were scheduled to be reported on Friday at a thoracic oncology meeting in Chicago.

Fatigue, lung tissue inflammation and diarrhea were among the most common adverse side effects reported. The discontinuations rate due to drug-related side effects was 12 percent, and there were two drug-related deaths, the company reported.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths globally, with about 1.5 million each year, according to the World Health Organization. NSCLC accounts for about 85 percent of lung cancer cases. (Reporting by Bill Berkrot in New York; editing by Matthew Lewis)</s>Radon is a potentially dangerous gas that could be found in your home.

Radon is a potentially dangerous gas that could be found in your home.

When a radon reduction system is being installed, everything must be tightly sealed for it to work properly. (Source: WOIO)

A lung cancer awareness group learned of Marcie's case and hooked up her and her husband with S.W.A.T., a radon removal company. (Source: WOIO)

It is the number one cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers and it could be in your house. One woman believes radon in her home made her sick.

One thing becomes quickly clear when a radon reduction system is being installed, everything must be tightly sealed for it to work properly, according to removal expert Tony Mowrer, who installed a system in Marcie and Dave Hogle's home.

"Any holes in the concrete, the radon gas can come up through the soil. We seal that. We're pulling air from beneath the foundation. That's where the radon is coming from, the soil, the uranium. So we grab it before it gets in the house. And that's basically the ventilation system you see," said Mowrer.

There is a very serious reason the Hogles are having the system installed. They believe Marcie's lung cancer was caused by radon. Neither has ever smoked cigarettes. Still, two-thirds of her lung had to be removed. Marcie says it began innocently.

"A persistent cough, went to the doctor and stuff, and he said, 'Oh, we'll do some chest X-rays.' And it showed what they thought was pneumonia at the time and later come to find out it wasn't."

It was level 3A cancer. Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers and the number two cause overall.

A lung cancer awareness group learned of Marcie's case and hooked the Hogles with S.W.A.T., a radon removal company.

Owner Tony Mowrer says most radon problems are found accidentally.

"Most of our business is in the real estate transaction and that's where somebody comes in and tests during an inspection. So a lot of homeowners don't know that they're living in high levels. Anything above a four is considered dangerous. Levels at the Hogle's were in the teens and higher," explained Mowrer.

Click here for more information on radon in your home.

Click here to learn more about Ohio's Indoor Radon Program.
Eberhard van der Laan, the mayor of Amsterdam, takes a permanent leave of absence after disclosing that his metastatic lung cancer has been diagnosed as terminal.