Can Lung Cancer Be Cured

If cure for lung cancer can no longer exist, there are treatments that can ensure that you have as few complaints as possible. Some may inhibit the lung tumor and the sores. Others reduce complaints, such as pain, cough and tightness and are intended to prevent you from getting an infection or thrombosis.

Chemotherapy

Patients with lung cancer who can no longer heal often get the proposal to treat the cancer with chemotherapy. Chemotherapy can make you feel better and feel longer.

Chemotherapy are drugs that kill cells or prevent cells from sharing. The medication also tests healthy cells. This causes nasty side effects, such as hair loss, nausea, vomiting, intestinal problems, an increased risk of infection and fatigue.

Sometimes the side effects are an important reason for no longer wanting chemotherapy. Your attending physician will respect your wishes. It is very important to be able to decide on this in peace. Together with your doctor, you decide whether or not to start chemotherapy. Of course, what you want is very important; It's also important how healthy and fit you are.

Radiation

In some situations, radiation is a possibility: if after cancer, the cancer returns, or if the lung tumor with an operation is not removed. In these situations people often get complaints, such as giving up blood, coughing and shortness of breath. With radiation, the doctor attempts to inhibit the tumor and reduce or prevent the symptoms. In addition, pain can be combated with radiation, for example when the lung tumor grows in the ribs or when bones are sown. Brain irradiation can counter complaints caused by brain sores.

Radiation is a local treatment with x-rays or electron radiation. Healthy cells also suffer damage. Therefore, it is a treatment with annoying side effects, such as dry mouth, pain in swallowing food, fatigue and skin irritation. Often there are short-term radiation cures where doctors try to prevent side effects as much as possible.

Laser light

With certain types of laser light it is possible to destroy tumor tissue. Laser light may be a possibility of complaints such as coughing or shortness of breath due to growth of the tumor in one of the major branches of the trachea. A laser treatment is sometimes given to reduce blood donation.

Pain relief

If the lung tumor grows in the ribs or there are sores, for example in the bones, you may suffer from pain. The pain can be combated with painkillers.

One of the causes of pain in lung cancer may be the tumor on the tissue around it. In such a case, it can be attempted to reduce the tumor by irradiation. If it succeeds, the pressure on the surrounding tissue decreases and also reduces the pain.

For some types of pain, for example bone or nerve pain, certain medicines (antidepressants) appear to work well as pain relief. Additionally, medicines for epilepsy (anti-epileptics) can sometimes help.

Sometimes pain can be well controlled by turning off the nerve that causes pain. A doctor can turn off the nerve by heating, freezing or injecting a chemical around that nerve. As a result, the pain does not end up in the brain. You will not feel the sore place anymore.

Stent

This is a tube that can be placed in the airway. This reduces shortness of breath.

In most people with lung cancer, lung cancer is detected when the disease has spread. Therefore, few people cure lung cancer. In 85 to 90% of people with lung cancer, cure is no longer possible.

If the tumor can be removed before there are metastases, 30 to 80% of people live 5 years after diagnosis. The survival rates of non-small cell lung cancer are greater than in small cell lung cancer.

Of all people with lung cancer, about 10 to 15% of people still live after 5 years.

It's not easy to say what these numbers mean for you. Survival chances vary by person