Doctor Pioneers Method For Treating Dangerous Lung Cancer Tumor

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A new treatment developed by an Oklahoma physician may help lung cancer patients who have trouble breathing.  Lung cancer sufferers may experience fits of coughing, shortness of breath and difficult-to-treat pneumonia because tumors block the bronchioles, which are the passages through which they receive air.

Dr. Daniel Nader is a pulmonologist at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Tulsa. Nader injects a small amount of the cancer drug cisplatin into the tumors, followed by targeted radiation.

He says the technique, which he's performed on 14 people since 2005, has promise and he hopes his positive results continue.

To qualify for his therapy, patients must have a tumor that blocks at least 75 % of a bronchiole.