Treatments for Lung Cancer Patients

It is estimated that in 2004, roughly 174,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer, and 164,000 of them will die of the disease (Spira and Ettinger, 2004). The five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients is only 14 percent, and yet lung cancer is curable in the early stages. Radiotherapy for lung cancer is performed using an external beam linear accelerator, with a dose of 60 Gy divided among 30 sessions given over six weeks. This radiation can have toxic effects on normal tissues such as pneumonitis, skin desquamation, and cardiac abnormalities. Concurrent chemotherapy can increase the effectiveness of the radiotherapy, but can also increase the adverse effects.

There are a variety of chemotherapeutic agents which are effective against small cell and non-small cell lung cancers, and the most effective is cisplatin, which cross-links DNA, and carboplatin, which is an analogue of cisplatin (Spira and Ettinger, 2004). Surgery is the major form of treatment for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, and includes resection and mediastinal node mapping. If the nodes are involved, they need to be removed completely. Adjuvant therapy is the name for the combination of surgery followed by either radiation or chemotherapy.

Adjuvant radiotherapy is directed at at killing cancer cells remaining near the site where the tumor was removed, but results have been very variable to date, and the same is true for chemotherapy (Spira and Ettinger, 2004). A meta-ana

Related Essays

Holistic Treatment of Cancer .... results found--more patients on alternative treatments died B .... of 35,000 is second only to lung cancer as the .... the impact of treatment on patients' quality of life .... (1861 7 )

Esophogeal Cancer .... a physician will recommend one or a combination of these treatments. .... Even better, it eliminates early lung cancer in 79 percent of patients" (Neergaard 2 .... (3218 13 )

Prostate cancer .... The more common treatments of orchiectomy, radiation .... is very common and after lung cancer, it is .... treatment options are available for prostate cancer patients. .... (2425 10 )

Cancer: Its History and Treatment in US Society .... with chest x-rays revealing lung opacities, and .... cured, while others register no response to treatments. .... factors naturally produced by patients to fight cancer. .... (1385 6 )

Skin Cancer .... can help prolong the life of melanoma patients. .... a rest period afterward before more treatments are begun .... use tobacco products and acquire lung cancer, so people .... (2850 11 )

Category: Medical - T