Published Nov 5, 2024

The World Lost ‘That’s Amore’ Legendary Singer Dean Martin To Lung Cancer At Age 78; Learn About The Huge Incredible Progress In Treatment

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Hope for Lung Cancer Patients

“The Rate Pack” vocalist Dean Martin died of acute respiratory failure while battling lung cancer in 1995, at the age of 78. Since then, advancements in science are showing more promise for the disease, in part, due to molecular testing and profiling, along with newer treatments.
Lung cancer is easier to treat when caught early, so if you are experiencing any lingering symptoms, be sure to consult your doctor. If you are recently diagnosed, just know that there is more and more hope with this disease.
Comprehensive biomarker testing checks the lung tumor for gene mutations that might respond to targeted therapy.
Check out SurvivorNet’s overview on lung cancer HERE.

Singer-songwriter, actor, comedian, and beloved “Rat Pack” member Dean Martin died of acute respiratory failure due to emphysema [a type of COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] while battling lung cancer in 1995. Since his passing, advancements in science have revealed additional hope for the disease, in part, due to molecular testing and profiling, along with newer immunotherapy treatments.

Lung Cancer: Treatment

Martin died in his Beverly Hills home on Christmas Day when he was 78 years old. And although it’s been nearly 20 years since his passing, his legacy and iconic hit song’s live on.

The “That’s Amore” and “Everybody Loves Somebody” singer—who also starred in his one-hour variety-show, “The Dean Martin Show,” and was a part of the “rat pack” clique including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford—battled lung cancer privately for two years before his death.

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In the wake of his passing, Martin’s best friend and fellow singer Frank Sinatra, said, “Dean was my brother — not through blood, but through choice…

“Good times and bad, we were there for each other. Our friendship has traveled down many roads over the years and there will always be a special place in my heart and soul for Dean.”

Additionally, actor James Woods said, “Dean was my best friend. Only two weeks ago, he said to me, ‘If I were to die tomorrow, because of my son Alex, I’d die a happy man.

“The proudest achievement of my life was to bring Alex into this world.”

Martin, who had eight children from three different marriages, was a heavy cigarette smoker and ultimately diagnosed with the disease at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in September 1993.

After being informed he would need surgery, he chose not to undergo the treatment.

Understanding Lung Cancer & Advancements In Treatment

Lung cancer forms when cancer cells develop in the tissues of the lung. It is the second most common form of cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the U.S., SurvivorNet experts say. It’s “completely asymptomatic,” thoracic surgeon-in-chief at Temple University Health System Dr. Joseph Friedberg told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview.

“It causes no issues until it has spread somewhere. So, if it spreads to the bones, it may cause pain. If it spreads to the brain, it may cause something not subtle, like a seizure,” Dr. Friedberg explains.

WATCH: Detecting lung cancer in the absence of symptoms.

Scans such as X-rays can help doctors determine if a shadow appears, which can prompt further testing for lung cancer.

Lung cancer often doesn’t cause symptoms until it has already spread outside the lungs, according to SurvivorNet’s experts.

Some people with lung cancer may experience symptoms such as:

A cough that doesn’t go away, that gets worse, or that brings up bloody phlegm
Shortness of breath
Fatigue
Chest pain
Hoarse voice
Appetite loss
Weight loss

If you are experiencing these kinds of symptoms consistently, contact your doctor for further tests.

Diagnosing lung cancer and determining treatment

As for treatment, surgery is not the only way to treat this disease. When it comes to lung cancer, it can be particularly tricky to treat because symptoms tend to show once the cancer has reached later stages and metastasized or spread to other organs.

There are two main types of lung cancer, which doctors group together based on how they act and how they’re treated:

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type and makes up about 85% of cases.
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is less common, but it tends to grow faster than NSCLC and is treated very differently.

Smoking is the main risk factor for lung cancer although non-smokers, like Stossel, can still get the disease. Medical oncologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Dr. Ronald Natale explains to SurvivorNet that oral medicines are available to help lung cancer patients who don’t smoke.

“Among patients who are nonsmokers, or former very light smokers, we identify a mutation that we can target with pills in about 60% to 70% of them,” Dr. Natale said.

WATCH: Lung Cancer in Smokers vs. Non-Smokers

Treatment options for lung cancer depend on the type of lung cancer you’re diagnosed with. Surgery has been the go-to treatment for early-stage lung cancer. Surgery is sometimes combined with chemotherapy before or after surgery. However, immunotherapy and targeted therapy are becoming more important players when it comes to lung cancer treatment.

Immunotherapy uses your own immune system to recognize and target cancer cells. Doctors can use internal mechanisms like the body’s proteins, white blood cells, tissues, and organs, or external mechanisms by synthesizing molecules in the lab.

“Using a patient’s own immune cells is a very complex way to treat a cancer,” says Dr. Steven Rosenberg, Chief of Surgery at the National Cancer Institute and a pioneer in immunotherapy research and treatment.

Generally, targeted and immunotherapies can include one of the following forms:

Small molecules: These can enter cells effortlessly, so they are utilized for intracellular targeting.
Monoclonal antibodies: These are proteins synthesized in the lab. Some of these monoclonal antibodies are made to mark cancer cells to be recognized by the immune system and destroyed, others can stop cancer cells from growing or cause them to self-destruct. These antibodies can also be loaded with toxic drugs to directly project them into cancer cells. This last form is called an antibody-drug conjugate and there have been many new advancements with this type of therapy.

When using immunotherapy for early-stage lung cancer checkpoint inhibitors are usually part of the treatment.

The treatment works like this:

Checkpoints are proteins on the surface of T-cells, a type of immune cell. T-cells attack harmful substances such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. PD-1 is an example of a checkpoint.
Lung cancer cells have their own protein, PD-L1, that activates PD-1 and tells the T cell to ignore them. You can think of PD-L1 as a cloak that hides the cancer cell from the immune system.
The interaction between PD-1 and PD-L1 is like a switch that shuts off the immune response.
Immunotherapy drugs called PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors flip the switch. They block these proteins to switch the immune response back on so that your immune system can kill the cancer cells.

PD-1, referred to as programmed cell death 1, is a protein that is found on the outer surface of cells in your immune system. PD-L1, referred to as programmed cell death ligand, is on the outer layer of some normal blood cells, as well as some cancer cells. When PD-1 binds to PD-L1, this puts the brakes on the immune system and can prevent immune cells from attacking and killing cells. Normally, this acts as a braking mechanism to prevent our immune systems from becoming overactive and going somewhat haywire by attacking our normal cells. Cancer cells can take over or override this innate mechanism, preventing cancer cells from dying.

Meanwhile, several immunotherapy drugs have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the last few years to improve the prognosis for patients.

Nivolumab (brand name Opdivo) can be combined with chemotherapy to shrink the cancer before surgery.
Atezolizumab (brand name Tecentriq) may be used after surgery and with chemotherapy to destroy any cancer cells left behind.
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) or cemiplimab (brand name Libtayo) might be the first treatment you get if you aren’t a good candidate for surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, or if the cancer has spread.
Durvalumab (brand name Imfinzi) can control the cancer’s growth after you’ve had chemotherapy plus radiation.

When using targeted therapy drugs, they work by identifying specific markers on tumor cells. These markers allow doctors to target specific cancers with drugs or other treatments designed to attack them. Targeted therapy can also minimize side effects, increase efficacy, and improve survival rates.

Currently, researchers have successfully produced many non-small cell lung cancer-targeted drugs that are specific for changes in genes and proteins found within cancer cells. They include drugs that target:

Blood vessel growth (also known as the angiogenesis process)
KRAS gene mutations
EGFR mutations
ALK gene mutations
ROS1 gene mutations
BRAF gene mutations

One example of a targeted therapy drug designed to target the EGFR mutation is osimertinib (brand name Tagrisso). This drug has been approved for early-stage NSCLC with EGFR mutations, and a new study revealed how well it can help patients.

The study from lead author Roy Herbst, deputy director and chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, showed that the risk of death was cut in half for patients with non-small cell lung cancer that can be removed with surgery and have the EGFR mutation.

This new data shows that Tagrisso can help extend and improve the lives of patients living with the disease. Although lung cancer tends to return after being treated, these new treatment options give hope to patients fighting to keep the cancer at bay.

Understanding Comprehensive Biomarker Testing for Lung Cancer

Being diagnosed with cancer is hard to digest, and lung cancer is not an exception. However, the good news is that lung cancer has various treatment options, including those with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Targeted therapies, for instance, can help stage 4 cancer patients continue living their lives with just one tablet a day. These therapies target specific driver mutations. Similarly, immunotherapies work with the help of the immune system.

However, not all targeted therapy treatments may be therapeutically beneficial for every cancer patient. Practitioners, as well as oncology specialists, need to find out if these treatments are right for you. This is where biomarker testing comes into play. Comprehensive biomarker testing is an advanced technique used to determine if certain biomarkers are present in your tumor and if medication will be beneficial in the treatment of your specific type of lung cancer. Biomarker testing is crucial when making informed decisions regarding lung cancer treatment and pharmacologic prescribing. Whether you or your loved one has been diagnosed with lung cancer, learning about comprehensive biomarker testing helps you understand the treatment process.

“Comprehensive biomarker testing is critically important in lung cancer,” Nicholas Rohs, MD, a hematologist-oncologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, previously told SurvivorNet,

“It makes a huge difference in how we manage patients and definitely gets them the best care.”

Biomarker Testing At a Glance

Comprehensive biomarker testing checks the lung tumor for gene mutations that might respond to targeted therapy.
Genetic testing of the lung tumor is typically for people with stage 4, non-small cell lung cancer. However, biomarker testing is becoming increasingly common for patients with lung cancer at any stage.
If your doctor does not mention it, ask for it! Be your own advocate.

Biomarkers – What You Need to Know

Before we plunge into the details of biomarker testing or how it works for patients, let’s quickly understand what a biomarker is. Biomarker typically refers to a molecule doctors can measure in bodily fluids, tissues, and/or blood. Your blood has several different biomarkers. Some of them indicate a normal bodily condition or a process, while others may suggest a disease or an abnormal process.

“The purpose of precision medicine is to identify a specific target, a specific biomarker, that allows us to select specific treatment,” said Dr. Ronald Natale, director of the Lung Cancer Clinical Research Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, in a previous interview with SurvivorNet.

In the medical field, it may also be referred to as a genotype, molecular marker, or signature molecule. Biomarkers can determine the following:

Whether a patient has a disease
The way a normal or abnormal process is functioning in the body
The type or nature of a disease
How well a patient’s body will react or respond to a treatment

Additional Information On Comprehensive Biomarker Testing

As mentioned, comprehensive biomarker testing is one-way healthcare specialists can collect information about the unique type of lung cancer in the patient. The healthcare team performs biomarker testing prior to treatment to ensure the treatment will be effective. Moreover, the results of comprehensive biomarker testing determine whether certain FDA-approved targeted therapies or a specific immunotherapy medication for lung cancer is the best treatment option. Comprehensive biomarker testing is used to create a viable treatment plan for patients with lung cancer, including the advanced stages.

Immunotherapy For Lung Cancer

A comprehensive biomarker testing is appropriate when:

Diagnosed with lung cancer
Lung cancer comes back

As mentioned, all lung cancer patients should discuss biomarker testing with their clinical care team during diagnosis and treatment discussions. It is the best way to stay informed about your individualized cancer type and see if targeted therapy or immunotherapy is the right treatment option for you.

Patients with stage 4 (IV) or advanced stage adenocarcinoma should generally be tested for all of the following mutations listed: ALK, EGFR, BRAF, MET, KRAS, RET, NTRK, PD-L1, ROS1.

Patients who have stage 1B-III cancer should be tested for gene mutation in EGFR once the tumor is removed. Patients should also consider mutations other than the ones mentioned above when discussing comprehensive biomarker testing with their healthcare team.