Treatment of lung cancer

Treatment of lung cancer refers to the use of medical therapies, such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, percutaneous ablation, and palliative care, alone or in combination, in an attempt to cure or lessen the adverse impact of malignant neoplasms originating in lung tissue. Treatment of lung cancer refers to the use of medical therapies, such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, percutaneous ablation, and palliative care, alone or in combination, in an attempt to cure or lessen the adverse impact of malignant neoplasms originating in lung tissue. Lung cancer is an extremely heterogeneous family of malignant neoplasms, and well over 50 different histopathological variants are currently recognized under the most widely used typing system. Because these variants have differing genetic, biological, and clinical properties, including response to treatment, correct classification of lung cancer cases are necessary to assure that lung cancer patients receive optimum management. Approximately 95% of lung cancers are carcinoma, or tumors derived from transformed cells of epithelial lineage. Currently, nearly four dozen different histopathological variants of lung carcinoma are recognized. For clinical and treatment purposes, however, most oncologists tend to classify lung carcinomas into two major groups, namely small cell carcinoma (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This is done because of differing responses to treatment — NSCLC is comparatively less sensitive to chemotherapy and/or radiation, so surgery is the treatment of choice in these tumors. SCLC, in contrast, usually initially responds well to chemotherapy and/or radiation, but has usually metastasized widely by the time it is discovered, making surgery ineffective. In a 2010 study of patients with metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer, 'early palliative care led to significant improvements in both quality of life and mood. As compared with patients receiving standard care, patients receiving early palliative care had less aggressive care at the end of life but longer survival' which was increased by approximately 3 months. There are typically three objectives applied to the treatment of lung cancer and can vary by patient or individual diagnosis: (1) curing lung cancer, (2) controlling lung cancer, and (3) being comfortable. In most cases, the goal of lung cancer surgery is to remove the entire tumor, including a small amount of normal tissue (about 2 centimetres, 0.8 in) at the margin. The general name for surgery that enters the chest is thoracotomy, and specific named types of surgical interventions may be performed as part of the thoracotomy, such as wedge resection, segmentectomy, 'sleeve resection', lobectomy, or pneumonectomy, depending on the tumor and patient characteristics. Surgery is very rarely used in cases of stage 3b or stage 4 non-small cell lung carcinoma. In patients with stage 3 lung cancer that cannot be removed, treatment with combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy improves survival significantly. Tumor Treating Fields might improve chemotherapy treatment.