Lung cancer claims millions of lives every year. It is one of most frequent causes of death among all diseases. There is no cure for the ailment; however, treatments are available, which could extend your life for five years or even longer, depending on the cancer's severity. At the first hint of lung cancer, you should discuss your doctor, immediately. The earlier you receive treatment, the larger your chances of surviving.
Medical Procedures
The best treatments are found in the hospital. Doctors have some remedies, with each concerning a particular stage of the cancer. Early stages can be treated through surgery. The surgeon will extract the cancer tissue from the affected lung and foster healing after. Chemotherapy is given, if surgery is rendered useless to stop cancer. Chemicals are shot into the affected areas, which eat away at the cancer cells. Radiotherapy is also an option, as radiation is used to obliterate cancer tissue. It is often used in conjunction with chemotherapy, in effect, raising a patient's chance of survival. Yet another option is pneumonectomy, which entails to the removal of the entire lung. The procedure is undertaken if cancer tissue has overwhelmed much of the area.
Natural Medicine and Lung Cancer
Aside from going under the knife, there is another form of treatment for this cancer - natural medicine. They, of course, aren't as effective as surgery and chemotherapy; however, they are said to halt the spread of cancer cells, even kill them off when taken at certain doses. Vinegar and food rich in fructose can help stop and preclude cancer. Eating much of these substances would certainly help, especially for chain smokers. Other natural forms of treatment are acetic, amino, and citric acids. Include them in your diet, to help prevent the development of cancer cells in your lungs.
Haste does not Make Waste
Lung cancer is one of the most dangerous diseases. Medical researchers continually devote much of their work, until an effective cure is found. Until such is discovered, you must do your best to stay away the disease. If you've already contracted this cancer, go to the hospital and have your lungs treated. Your haste might spell the difference for the operation's success.
Greg J Thompson is an expert in this field. If you want great treatments for lung cancer articles or some good, reliable pancreatic cancer symptom information then visit his site now.
12/07/2010
12/04/2010
Lung Cancer Treatment Explored
Lung cancer currently ranks as the heading cause of cancer related death in men as well as women. Although continuing to decline in men, incidence rates remain stable in women, following an increase throughout the 1990's. Trends in lung cancer related deaths, are largely attributed to trends in smoking over the past many decades. In 2008, the American Cancer Society estimates 215,020 new cases will be diagnosed and 161,870 deaths due to lung cancer will occur in the United States alone...
Traditional treatment for lung cancer are surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, ans photodtnamic therapy.
Your treatment will depend on what kind of lung cancer you have, and what stage your cancer's at (how essential it is).
In the case of surgery... there are many kinds of surgery for lung cancer, such as pneumonectomy (where one entire lung is removed), lobectomy (where a section "lobe" of the lung is removed), a segmentectomy / wedge resection (where part of a lobe is removed), laser surgery ( where a high-energy beam of light destroys the cancer cells in a tumor).
In the case of radiation therapy... this therapy uses high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells. The radiation able to be delivered by a machine that directs the high-energy rays towards your cancer, or by a small radioactive pellet that gets implanted in or near the tumor.
In the case of chemotherapy... means taking anti-cancer drugs, either by swallowing them or by injection. One or more chemotherapy drugs may be administered through a vein in your arm (intravenously) or taken orally. A combination of drugs usually is given in a series of treatments over a duration of weeks or months, with breaks in between so that your body could recover.
In the case of targeted drug therapy... these are newer cancer treatments that work by targeting specific abnormalities in cancer cells. Targeted therapy options for treating lung cancer include...
Bevacizumab (Avastin), which stops a tumor from creating a new blood supply. Blood vessels that connect to tumors can supply oxygen and nutrients to the tumor, allowing it to grow. Bevacizumab is usually used in combination with chemotherapy and is approved for advanced and recurrent non-small cell lung cancer. Bevacizumab carries a risk of severe bleeding.
Erlotinib (Tarceva), which blocks chemicals that signal the cancer cells to grow and divide. Erlotinib is approved for people with advanced and recurrent non-small cell lung cancer that haven't been helped by chemotherapy. Erlotinib side effects include a skin rash and diarrhea.
Doctors are getting better at diagnosing and treating lung cancer, which means people with lung cancer have a better chance of recovering and living longer. Still, lung cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. It's important for people with lung cancer to know what to expect and to plan for the future. It's important to remember that not completely lung cancers are the same, and that the treatment or the prognosis for one patient with lung cancer may be different than the next person with lung cancer.
Some people select to use alternative therapies as lung cancer treatment instead of conventional treatments or medicine, because when one begins to understand why cells have become cancerous in the first place, it makes sense to try and reverse the process.
For instance, we all know or should know that a weakened immune system leads to cancer... while a strong immune system seeks out and destroys cancer cells. For most of your life, the immune system has successfully dealt with cancer cells, killing them off as they developed. That's its job. For cancer to have developed in you, your immune system must have become worn out, ineffective and unable to deal with the cancer cells.
Thus it is critical in your battle against cancer to strengthen the immune system. Especially if you are getting medical treatments that wipe out the immune system, and make the body more acidic to boot. Many natural supplements and a proper diet supports the immune system. The other concern is to make sure you take enough. Lung cancer is not something to pussyfoot around with.
Traditional treatment for lung cancer are surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, ans photodtnamic therapy.
Your treatment will depend on what kind of lung cancer you have, and what stage your cancer's at (how essential it is).
In the case of surgery... there are many kinds of surgery for lung cancer, such as pneumonectomy (where one entire lung is removed), lobectomy (where a section "lobe" of the lung is removed), a segmentectomy / wedge resection (where part of a lobe is removed), laser surgery ( where a high-energy beam of light destroys the cancer cells in a tumor).
In the case of radiation therapy... this therapy uses high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells. The radiation able to be delivered by a machine that directs the high-energy rays towards your cancer, or by a small radioactive pellet that gets implanted in or near the tumor.
In the case of chemotherapy... means taking anti-cancer drugs, either by swallowing them or by injection. One or more chemotherapy drugs may be administered through a vein in your arm (intravenously) or taken orally. A combination of drugs usually is given in a series of treatments over a duration of weeks or months, with breaks in between so that your body could recover.
In the case of targeted drug therapy... these are newer cancer treatments that work by targeting specific abnormalities in cancer cells. Targeted therapy options for treating lung cancer include...
Bevacizumab (Avastin), which stops a tumor from creating a new blood supply. Blood vessels that connect to tumors can supply oxygen and nutrients to the tumor, allowing it to grow. Bevacizumab is usually used in combination with chemotherapy and is approved for advanced and recurrent non-small cell lung cancer. Bevacizumab carries a risk of severe bleeding.
Erlotinib (Tarceva), which blocks chemicals that signal the cancer cells to grow and divide. Erlotinib is approved for people with advanced and recurrent non-small cell lung cancer that haven't been helped by chemotherapy. Erlotinib side effects include a skin rash and diarrhea.
Doctors are getting better at diagnosing and treating lung cancer, which means people with lung cancer have a better chance of recovering and living longer. Still, lung cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. It's important for people with lung cancer to know what to expect and to plan for the future. It's important to remember that not completely lung cancers are the same, and that the treatment or the prognosis for one patient with lung cancer may be different than the next person with lung cancer.
Some people select to use alternative therapies as lung cancer treatment instead of conventional treatments or medicine, because when one begins to understand why cells have become cancerous in the first place, it makes sense to try and reverse the process.
For instance, we all know or should know that a weakened immune system leads to cancer... while a strong immune system seeks out and destroys cancer cells. For most of your life, the immune system has successfully dealt with cancer cells, killing them off as they developed. That's its job. For cancer to have developed in you, your immune system must have become worn out, ineffective and unable to deal with the cancer cells.
Thus it is critical in your battle against cancer to strengthen the immune system. Especially if you are getting medical treatments that wipe out the immune system, and make the body more acidic to boot. Many natural supplements and a proper diet supports the immune system. The other concern is to make sure you take enough. Lung cancer is not something to pussyfoot around with.
12/01/2010
Lung Cancer Treatment -- Photodynamic Therapy Offers a Safe Alternative
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is one of the newer lung cancer treatment options available today. Lung cancers are sometimes inoperable, particularly when they are situated in the bronchi or trachea. Similarly, cancers that have spread from different parts of the body to the bronchi cannot be removed surgically. In such cases, photodynamic therapy offers a safe as well as effective treatment option.
In a best-case scenario, PDT is used as a curative therapy that can eliminate the cancer completely. In many patients, PDT is employed as a palliative lung cancer treatment meant to give relief from symptoms even though it does not cure the cancer.
Photodynamic therapy can effectively relieve symptoms like breathing difficulties from obstructions in the bronchi or trachea. In some patients, tumors block the airways and can cause coughing, breathing difficulties, pneumonia and bleeding. PDT may be used in such cases depending on the location, size and stage of the tumor.
PDT destroys cancer cells using a laser. To assure that only cancerous cells are destroyed, a special drug is used to make the cancer cells more sensitive to this treatment while leaving normal cells intact.
There are three steps involved in the process of lung cancer treatment using PDT. In stage one, a drug called photofrin is injected intravenously. This drug has the property of making body cells very sensitive to light. Normal, fit cells eliminate photofrin, but cancerous cells are unable to do so and the drug is retained in such cells.
In the second stage of PDT, about forty to fifty hours after the injection is given, a flexible tube is inserted into the bronchia. This tube contains a red laser of low intensity. The cancer cells exposed to this laser are destroyed.
In the third and final stage, about two days after the laser light exposure, a bronchoscopy is done to get rid of the dead cancer cells and mucus from the bronchi or trachea.
A patient can benefit from photodynamic therapy only if his or her cancer is situated in a location that is accessible to a bronchoscope. Also, the tumor must be large enough so that the bronchoscope can easily detect it. This means that some cancers like those located outside the bronchial passages cannot be treated with PDT.
Lung cancer treatment with PDT offers almost no dangerous side effects, unlike other treatment methods. Photosensitivity is about the only side effect that lasts for a while. Since photofrin makes cells sensitive to light, the patient may experience heightened light sensitivity for a period of four to eight weeks after the treatment.
During this time, even normal exposure to sunlight can happen in severe sunburn. For this reason, patients who have undergone PDT are advised not to venture out into the sun for about eight weeks after their lung cancer treatment. In contrast to photodynamic therapy, major surgery done to eliminate lung cancer usually poses much greater risks.
Many tumors that are inoperable because of their location are prime candidates for treatment with PDT. When used as a palliative, this type of lung cancer treatment offers almost early relief.
Given completely these advantages, increasing numbers of patients have been using photodynamic therapy as a lung cancer treatment of choice.
In a best-case scenario, PDT is used as a curative therapy that can eliminate the cancer completely. In many patients, PDT is employed as a palliative lung cancer treatment meant to give relief from symptoms even though it does not cure the cancer.
Photodynamic therapy can effectively relieve symptoms like breathing difficulties from obstructions in the bronchi or trachea. In some patients, tumors block the airways and can cause coughing, breathing difficulties, pneumonia and bleeding. PDT may be used in such cases depending on the location, size and stage of the tumor.
PDT destroys cancer cells using a laser. To assure that only cancerous cells are destroyed, a special drug is used to make the cancer cells more sensitive to this treatment while leaving normal cells intact.
There are three steps involved in the process of lung cancer treatment using PDT. In stage one, a drug called photofrin is injected intravenously. This drug has the property of making body cells very sensitive to light. Normal, fit cells eliminate photofrin, but cancerous cells are unable to do so and the drug is retained in such cells.
In the second stage of PDT, about forty to fifty hours after the injection is given, a flexible tube is inserted into the bronchia. This tube contains a red laser of low intensity. The cancer cells exposed to this laser are destroyed.
In the third and final stage, about two days after the laser light exposure, a bronchoscopy is done to get rid of the dead cancer cells and mucus from the bronchi or trachea.
A patient can benefit from photodynamic therapy only if his or her cancer is situated in a location that is accessible to a bronchoscope. Also, the tumor must be large enough so that the bronchoscope can easily detect it. This means that some cancers like those located outside the bronchial passages cannot be treated with PDT.
Lung cancer treatment with PDT offers almost no dangerous side effects, unlike other treatment methods. Photosensitivity is about the only side effect that lasts for a while. Since photofrin makes cells sensitive to light, the patient may experience heightened light sensitivity for a period of four to eight weeks after the treatment.
During this time, even normal exposure to sunlight can happen in severe sunburn. For this reason, patients who have undergone PDT are advised not to venture out into the sun for about eight weeks after their lung cancer treatment. In contrast to photodynamic therapy, major surgery done to eliminate lung cancer usually poses much greater risks.
Many tumors that are inoperable because of their location are prime candidates for treatment with PDT. When used as a palliative, this type of lung cancer treatment offers almost early relief.
Given completely these advantages, increasing numbers of patients have been using photodynamic therapy as a lung cancer treatment of choice.
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