Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List
| | A | | | B | | | C | | | D | | | E | | | F | | | G | | | H | | | I | | | J | | | K | | | L | | | M | |
| | N | | | O | | | P | | | Q | | | R | | | S | | | T | | | U | | | V | | | W | | | X | | | Y | |
Treatment of Cancer of the lung
Before you receive treatment your cancer specialist will work out whether you have small cell or non-small cell cancer. Non-small cell cancers include squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. Small cell and non-small cell cancers respond differently to treatment. Small cell cancers account for around 20% of lung cancer and tend to spread fastest.
Treatment for non-small cell lung cancers
If the cancer hasn’t spread outside the lung, or only to the chest wall, surgery is usually offered. This may involve removing one lobe (section) of one lung, or the whole of one lung. Surgery may be followed by chemotherapy (cancer-killing drugs) to make sure the cancer is completely destroyed. If the surgeon couldn’t remove all of the cancer during the operation, you may be given radiotherapy, which involves using radiation to kill the cancer cells.
If you cannot have surgery (for example if you have another condition that makes it dangerous to have surgery), and if your tumour is small or has spread only a little, you may be treated using intensive, radical, radiotherapy.
If the cancer has spread into the lymph glands in your chest, you may have radiotherapy followed by chemotherapy, instead of surgery.
In the case of large tumours, and when cancer has spread extensively through your body, surgery and radiotherapy are not helpful. Chemotherapy is usually the best treatment for controlling the disease and to improve symptoms.
Treatment for small cell lung cancers
Usually small cell lung cancers spread quickly, and the best treatment is chemotherapy. If the cancer has not spread far, you may have chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the same time. If chemotherapy shrinks the main tumour, and kills any secondary cancers that have developed around your body, you might have radiotherapy on your chest to try to remove the main tumour for good.
Palliative care
Even when cure is not a possibility much can be done to reduce the symptoms caused by the illness. Palliative care has progressed tremendously in the past few years and includes both practical and emotional support from such agencies as Marie Curie or Macmillan nurses and hospices around the country.
