Small Cell Carcinoma of Lung : In Depth - Deciding on T...
Print
Email
SaveHealthline's Premium Tools
Healthline Part D Plan Selector
Medicare's drug plans are subsidized by the US federal government and offered through insurers.
Advertisement
Marketplace
|
Researchers are continually finding new ways to treat lung cancer. People diagnosed with the disease now have more hope for survival than ever before.
|
|
At first, the information you receive about treatment options may seem overwhelming. You may ease the stress by allowing yourself the time to gather as much information as possible about your disease and its treatment and to discuss the issues with your doctors, nurses, and loved ones.
|
 |
You have to be healthy enough to have surgery for it to be a good choice for you. If you have heart disease, your lung cancer surgeon may ask your heart doctor to give approval for your surgery. If you have emphysema or any type of lung disease, you may have to have tests before surgery. The doctors' goal is to make sure that the parts of your lung that will remain after surgery will support your breathing. Some types of tumors are not operable. That means they can't be taken out by surgery.
|
|
The goal of surgery is to remove the tumor from your lung. Your doctor will try to take out the tumor without harming other parts of your body, but he or she usually has to remove part, or all of, the cancerous lung.
|
|
You may have another type of treatment before surgery to make the tumor smaller and easier to remove. If so, it's called neoadjuvant therapy. You may have chemotherapy alone. Or you may have chemotherapy and radiation. The goal of either is to help shrink the tumor so that it is easier to take out. There is usually a 4 week break after the radiation before the surgery.
|
 |
Risks of general anesthesia Wound infection Bleeding Inflammation of the lungs (pneumonia)
|
|
After surgery, you may have to stay in the hospital for a few days. How long you must stay depends on these things.
|
|
Your doctor may suggest radiation for you in any of the following situations. You have non-small cell lung cancer and are not able to have surgery.
|
|
Radiation treatment is also called radiotherapy. It's one way to treat lung cancer. One goal of radiation is to kill cancer cells while affecting as few normal cells as possible. Another goal is to use radiation as a way to ease symptoms that are caused from tumors, such as shortness of breath.
|
|
External radiation is the most common type of radiation given for lung cancer. You can get this as an outpatient in a hospital or a clinic. This type of radiation usually comes from a machine called a linear accelerator.
|
 |
Radiation therapy can help you in your fight against cancer. To feel better, get plenty of rest, exercise, and eat well. This will give your body the extra strength it needs right now. Also, look to family and friends for support and comfort.
|
|
Radiation affects normal cells as well as cancer cells. That means you may have some side effects. Usually, the risk for side effects is far less than the benefits of killing cancer cells. Many people have no side effects at all. If you do have them, they relate to the dose of radiation you get and where you get it. Generally, side effects are limited to the area that's been treated.
|
|
Your doctor may suggest chemotherapy to treat lung cancer for any of the following situations.
|
|
Chemotherapy is the use of drugs. It can be used for several reasons. To kill cancer cells
|
|
The doctor who directs your chemotherapy treatment is called a medical oncologist. Most people have chemotherapy in an outpatient part of the hospital, at the doctor's office, or at home. However, depending on the drugs you're taking and your health, you may need to stay in the hospital during treatment. Based on the drugs you take, you may take a pill form or get the drugs through an IV, or both.
|
|
Ask your oncologist and chemotherapy nurse for the details on each drug's side effects. Side effects are different for everyone and vary based on the drugs you take.
|
|
Your doctor may suggest you have targeted therapy if you've had one or more courses of chemotherapy and it didn't work. Some studies showed that the drugs worked better in people who:
|
|
All anticancer drugs target tumors in some way. Most conventional treatments, however, attack healthy cells as well as cancer cells. As a result, there can be serious side effects from the treatment. A new approach to cancer treatment may help reduce side effects. The new treatment is called molecularly targeted therapy. It takes a more direct aim at cancer cells. And that means less damage to healthy cells.
|
|
The American Cancer Society estimates that about 160,00 people die of lung cancer each year. This is more than the deaths caused by the next three leading cancers—colon, breast, and prostate—combined. The current treatment of lung cancer often includes combinations of chemotherapy drugs. While chemotherapy often helps people live longer, with better quality-of-life, and may even cure lung cancer in a few patients, the outlook for someone with advanced lung cancer is generally not good. In most patients with advanced lung cancer, the tumor comes back or becomes resistant to chemotherapy. As a result, scientists are searching for new types of treatment that will more accurately target lung cancer cells with the goal of reducing the damage to normal cells. Gene therapy is one example of these targeted therapies. It's being studied in the lab and in a few clinical trials.
|
|
Targeted cancer treatment uses drugs. They target the specific molecules that let cancer grow and spread. Because of their focus on the specific part of the cancer cell that is causing the problem, they may cause less harm to normal cells than other kinds of treatment. That may mean they don't cause as many side effects. Treatment for cancer with fewer side effects can lead to an improved quality of life.
|
|
You take targeted therapy drugs as pills every day. Usually you have this treatment alone, not combined with other treatment. People who respond usually do so within 10 days.
|
|
You may have side effects from these drugs. Here's a list of common side effects from Iressa (gefitinib). They are listed from the most to the least common.
|
|
Robert Browning had emphysema, suffered repeated bouts of pneumonia, and began coughing up blood before he was told that he had lung cancer in 1994. James S. McCaughan, Jr., MD, director of the Grant Laser Center in Columbus, Ohio, was the light at the end of Browning's tunnel.
|
|
Your doctor may suggest PDT if you have stage 0 lung cancer. That means you have a very early tumor that is smaller than a dime. And, it is sitting on the inside of your windpipe so that it is reachable via a tube passed through your airways. Your doctor may also suggest PDT if you have blockages in your airways from advanced lung cancer, meaning it has spread.
|
|
The goal of PDT is to kill cancer cells. It's done in a kind of two-step process. First, you're given a drug that makes the cancer cells sensitive to light. Then, the doctor uses a laser or other light source to kill the cells. It is a new treatment for early stage non-small cell lung cancer. Having PDT when lung cancer is limited to the lining of your air passages may be an effective way to treat your cancer. There are clinical trials to determine uses for PDT other than just for early stage non-small cell lung cancer. It may also help ease symptoms from more advanced cancer, such as breathing problems and coughing up blood.
|
|
You can usually have PDT as an outpatient, meaning you do not have to stay in the hospital. A trained nurse or doctor injects you with a drug called Photofrin (porfimer sodium). You'll be sent home for 24 to 72 hours while your cells absorb the drug. The drug will leave most of your normal cells during this time, but it will stay longer in cancer cells and the cells of the skin.
|
|
As soon as you are injected with Photofrin, you are at high risk for dangerous sunburn, so you need to protect your skin and eyes immediately after you are injected with it and for at least a month to 6 weeks afterward. Here's how you do that.
|
|
For most people with small cell lung cancer, current treatments rarely cure the cancer. The same is true for most people with non-small cell lung cancer. Treatment will help ease symptoms and may improve your quality of life and help you live longer.
|
 |
 |
Home | About | Health Experts | Careers | Site Map | Feedback | Help | Health Tools | Tell a Friend
Advertise | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
Advertise | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2005 - 2008 Healthline Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.