An inhalable dry powder drug could revolutionize the treatment of lung cancer, and could be more effective at fighting the deadliest cancer killer in the US than existing remedies, scientists said this week at a drug conference and an accompanying statement by the medical organizations involved.

Research presented this week at the 2010 International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress (PSWC) and American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La. showed that the powder, made of a chemotherapy drug turned into nanoparticles, was more effective at shrinking lung cancer tumors than the same drug issued intravenously (IV) or via a solution.

"Current lung cancer treatments can be grueling and take a significant toll on the patient," said Raimar Löbenberg, lead researcher of the study, in a statement. "Our results show that this treatment method may not only increase someone's survival rate but could also potentially be less toxic to the body."

The study tested the powder on lab mice and found that 70 to 80 percent of the mice treated with the powder survived for more than 90 days, while none of the mice administered with the IV or solution-based drugs survived more than 50 days.

Löbenberg and his colleagues Warren Finlay and Wilson Roa, all from the University of Alberta, also said at the conference and according to the statement that mice treated with the dry powder had smaller and fewer cancer tumors in their lungs compared to the mice treated with IV injection or solution drugs.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lung cancer is the deadliest cancer for US adults, killing more Americans than breast, colon, and

cancer combined. In 2006, the latest data available, lung cancer deaths in the United States numbered nearly 160,000, while almost 200,000 total were diagnosed with the disease. Dry powder new cancer treatment.