Treatment Of Lung Cancer

Treatment of lung cancer

Treatment of lung cancer refer to the use of medical therapies, such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and targeted therapies, in alone or combination to cure or lessen the impact of malignant neoplasms originating in lung tissue.

Stage 0: Early formation of cancer. No tumors yet.

Stage 1: Cancer cells localised to one part of the body. Small tumor.

Stage 2: Cancer cells are more developed, still in one part of the body.

Stage 3: Same as stage 2, depending on type of cancer. Late stage of cancer.

Stage 4: Cancer has metastasised and spread to other organs. Final stage.

Surgery

The aim of lung cancer is to remove the entire tumour and some normal tissue at the margin. Surgery can be curative when lung cancer was caught before spread beyond the lungs. However, there are some side effect of surgery, that are infection, bleeding, and  shortness of breath, depends on the amount of tissue removed. Surgery is rarely used in stage 3b or stage 4 non-small cell lung carcinoma. The three procedure in surgery are as below,

·         Wedge resection – the tumor and some surrounding tissue is removed

·         Lobectomy – a lobe of the lung is removed

·         Pneumonectomy – an entire lung is removed

Radiation

Radiation therapy use x-rays of high energy applied to kill the cancer cell. It can be combined with chemotherapy. In patients with stage one or two non-small cell lung carcinoma, radiotherapy alone results in 13–39% of patients surviving to five years. The common side effect of radiation therapy is redness and irritation of the skin. Radiation therapy used in different stage as below,

·         After surgery – To treat any cancer cells that might remain in the area after surgery.

·         Before surgery – To decrease the size of a tumor and make surgery more effective.

·         To cure cancer – With small tumors, and in patients that are unable to have surgery due to age, location of a tumor or other medical conditions, radiation therapy can sometimes offer the chance for a cure.

·         To treat lung cancer – Both locally, such as nearby lymph nodes and to other parts of the body, such as the brain.

·         To treat symptoms – When a tumor is causing symptoms such as shortness of breath and pain, sometimes radiation therapy is used to reduce tumor size to decrease symptoms.

·         For prevention – In small-cell lung cancer, radiation therapy to the brain is sometimes given to kill any cells that have spread to the brain but are not detected by scans. This is called Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation (PCI).

Chemotherapy

In patients with stage 3 lung cancer that cannot be removed, treatment with combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy improves survival significantly. Sometimes, chemotherapy is used along with surgery to to catch cancer cell that have spread microscopically. Chemotherapy also given as a palliative therapy, to improve survival time and decrease symptoms. Chemotherapy medications work by killing rapidly dividing cells.  Chemotherapy is a “systemic treatment ,” meaning that it works to kill cancer cells anywhere in the body. In some cases, chemotherapy is used before surgery to shrink a tumor and improve the chances that surgery will be effective.

Targeted therapies

Unlike traditional chemotherapy, these treatments target proteins on cancer cells or target normal cells that have been hijacked by the tumor in its attempts to grow. For that reason they tend to have fewer side effects that many of the medications used for cancer. Currently, these are used primarily for stage 3 and 4 lung cancer that has not responded to other treatments.  

Reference:
http://lungcancer.about.com/od/treatmentoflungcancer/a/treatmentlungca.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_staging

- Fong Chee Cheng