SATURDAY, Aug. 23 (HealthDay News) -- With the start of school here, the American Lung Association is advising parents of children with asthma to follow a simple checklist to ensure this sometimes debilitating disease doesn't hinder their child's academic year.

Almost 11 percent of school-age children have asthma. Annually, these students miss some 13 million days in the classroom because of asthma, making it one of the most common reasons kids are absent from school.

The American Lung Association also urges parents who have children with asthma to:

TUESDAY, Aug. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Preliminary research has produced promising findings regarding a possible alternative treatment for people with a common type of lung cancer.

The new combination of chemotherapy drugs could eventually become another option for people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, which is very difficult to treat, the Japanese researchers suggest.

Even if it works, however, the treatment isn't likely to add many months to the lives of patients. And the study only represents the second in three necessary stages of research.

MONDAY, May 19 (HealthDay News) -- Lung cancer patients may be one step closer to the day when the disease can be detected early with a simple blood test.

Scientists slated to report their findings Tuesday at the American Thoracic Society's conference in Toronto say the test -- which tracks gene activity in immune-system cells -- was very good at distinguishing patients with lung cancer from those without the disease.