Therapy for Lung Cancer

Medical therapies for lung cancer treatment include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and palliative care. These therapies are either done alone or in tandem with others, whichever is suitable for curing or lessening the malignant neoplasm’s originating in the lung tissue.

Over 50 different histopathological variants of malignant neoplasms are treated with different approaches. These neoplasm’s, responsible for causing lung cancer, differ from each other on genetic, biological and clinical characteristics. Most of the lung cancers are carcinoma, wherein tumours are formed due to transformation of cells of epithelial lineage.

Chemotherapy

1. Most common treatment procedure for lung cancer is chemotherapy, wherein the drugs are administered to restrict growth of cancer cells by killing them or preventing them from dividing.

2. A specific set of medications is given in a series of treatments, known as cycles, over a period of months.

Radiation Therapy

1. Radiation therapy shrinks the tumour or limits the growth with the help of radiations.

2. Radiation therapy involves high-energy X-rays or other radiations to kill dividing cancer cells.

3. The therapy might be done as a curative therapy, palliative therapy, or as adjuvant therapy, or in tandem with chemotherapy.

4. Radiations are delivered externally, or by using a medium that directs radiations to the tumour through placement of radioactive substances.

5. Positioning of a small pellet of radioactive material on the tumour or next to the cancer cells is ascribed as brachytherapy, which is usually done through a bronchoscope.

6. Short-term memory problems, fatigue and nausea are the complications associated with the treatment of radiation therapy.

Surgery

1. Lung cancer surgery is done in order to remove the tumour that has manifested within the lungs.

2. Thoracotomy is the surgery that enters the chest to remove the entire tumour. This is done in tandem with the surgical interventions such as wedge resection, segmentectomy, sleeve resection, lobotomy, or pneumonectomy.

3. Surgery cannot be done in case of stage 3 or stage 4 non-small cell lung carcinoma.

4. Health care providers examine the size and location of the tumour before going for the surgical method to treat lung cancer.

5. In the process, lymph nodes in the region of the lungs also need to be removed.

6. Surgical method of  treatment requires basic anaesthesia, hospitalisation, and follow-up care for weeks to months.

7. As a consequence of surgical treatment, patients may experience breathing difficulties, weakness and muscle pain.