Lung Cancer - The Stages And Treatments Involved In Treating The Disease

Lung cancer forms in the tissues of your lungs generally in the cells which line your air passages.lung cancer is a very aggressive type of cancer and if not caught early enough can have a very poor outcome.

Generally, lung cancers originate in the lining of the bronchi. Plus it can also form in the glands below the lining of the bronchi, usually in the periphery of the lungs.

There are four recognizable stages of lung cancer. Stage one is the mildest and stage four is the most severe form. Remember though, that all stages of lung cancer are very serious.

Let us now examine the four stages:

Stage One: In this stage, the cancer is confined to the lung tissue will only. Your chance of recovering from this type of cancer is the best.

Stage Two: Here the cancer is confined to the lung tissue and lymph nodes only.

Stage Three: At this stage, the cancer is in the lung tissue and lymph nodes inside and outside the lungs.

Stage Four: When you reach this stage, the cancer has spread to the liver, bone, adrenal glands, brain, and other areas.

The state of development and the type of the cancer are very important when trying to heal the patient. There are two types: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, and Small Cell Lung Cancer. What follows are the likely treatments and approximate cure rates for each stage of lung cancer:

Stage One: The main treatment here involves surgery.

Cure rate is around 67%.

Stage Two: The main treatment for this type of cancer also involves surgery.

The cure rate for this type of cancer is generally in the 40 to 50% range.

Stage Three: The main treatment here includes chemotherapy and radiation.

The cure rates is generally less than 60%.

Stage Four: The main treatment involved here also includes chemotherapy and radiation. The cure rate at this stage is less than 80%.

Research is continually ongoing to study the causes of lung and other cancers, and to find new ways to prevent or even cure them.Unfortunately however, if you are diagnosed with lung cancer there is not a very good outlook attached to the outcome.

For More Information On Asbestos Lung Cancer:
Asbestos Lung Cancer

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Treatments for Lung Cancer - What To Expect

Existing and Emerging Treatments for Lung Cancer

A plethora of new treatments for lung cancer are being tested in ongoing clinical trials. While several promising methods of detection and therapy should be available to the public in the next few years, doctors still rely on existing methods for the best results in the general population.

Current Options

Doctors prescribe a handful of treatment methods depending on the stage of the patient's cancer. There are specialties within each option, but all stem from surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Lung surgery may be performed for stage 1, 2 or 3 non small cell carcinoma (NSCLC) patients. Prior to the operation, patients are tested for good lung health and other abnormalities.

Depending on the severity of the cancer, a triangular wedge of affected tissue, an entire lobe, or an entire lung will be removed.

Chemotherapy is usually the first line therapy for advanced small cell carcinoma and the second line therapy for NSCLC. Radiation therapies may be used in conjunction with either of these methods to precisely target and shrink a tumor. This method is often used when a malignant growth is in the brain or located near or in a vital structure of the body.

Alternatives

Oncologists implement other cancer-fighting technologies when appropriate. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is the process of heating and killing malignant cells with RF current. The current travels through a needle inserted into the tumor. RFA may not require general anesthesia and is a quick procedure.

The opposite of RFA is cryosurgery, where malignant cells are frozen to death. Also know as cryoablation, it a new process that is still being tested. A more widely used treatment option is laser surgery.

The intense light from a laser is precise and powerful enough to kill cancer cells. Unfortunately, this precision is best for palliative care. Radiologists use this therapy to alleviate symptoms associated with the disease.

Ongoing clinical trials are testing cures for lung cancer in a variety of populations. Trials are available for specific gene pools, certain types of carcinomas and different age and lifestyle groups. Although participants may experience side effects, all trials are protected by heavy international regulations.

I for one know there's a ton of Information About Lung Cancer scattered all around the web, and I know it can be somewhat depressing to go through much of it. I have compiled all that researched so it might benefit others. I put many months of research into a useful guide. There's no charge of course and I think you'll appreciate the simplicity of it. Its at MyLungCancerGuide.com. While you are there, you'll find this article about Treatments For Lung Cancer and many other very straight forward, helpful articles.

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Cancer Remedies - If Medicine Can't Help Are There Any Natural Cancer Treatments?

It is devastating for someone to be told that medicine has run out of options and there is no more treatment that can be offered. Some patients adapt to what they consider the inevitable. However some people fight tooth and nail to have a longer period of time before they die. They want to explore every option. Is this realistic? Are there any cancer remedies or natural cancer treatments that have been shown to work?

The official medical answer to that is, no, or medicine would be using them. However it has to be acknowledged that there are some people who, despite their medical prognosis, do much better than expected, and most medical people have no idea why that is. Much research has been done but few doctors know of it and even fewer believe that it is their role to tell patients about it.

I was talking to a medical professor about the research which showed that cancer patients who exercised did much better, on average than those who didn't exercise and about other research which showed that psychological stresses lead to reduced immune function. He knew the research existed, but did not believe it was his role to tell people how to live their lives and so was very vague about the results.

When asked whether a woman with breast cancer would want to know that if she undertook three hours of moderate exercise a week she might cut the chance of future cancer problems in half, he just shrugged his shoulders. It was the same when asked if someone with high blood pressure might like to know that good social support helps regulate their cardiovascular system. He made some comment about such research coming up in the year 3 medical curriculum but there was no emphasis on it thereafter. It wasn't his role to go into the psychosocial mire of people's lives.

It was similar when we talked about diet. When presented with evidence that some foods can reduce the damage done by sunlight (hence a skin cancer preventive), other foods which reduced the chance of mutation damage, nutrients which helped the body attack the cancer cells, he drew himself up to his full height and said, "I very much doubt it." He turned away.

What is really sad is that this doctor is one who believes he is open to research, open to alternatives and there to meet the needs of his patients.

To be fair, there is a huge amount of research out there. It is impossible for one person to stay up to date in regards to every aspect of medicine. This is even more difficult for the family physician or general practitioner who must cover all disciplines. Most of them make do with the guidelines given to them by governments and drug companies.

There is also the huge impact of the pharmaceutical companies who provide instant answers to dealing with the patient in the consultation. If the patient can leave the surgery with a prescription, in very many cases, both practitioner and patient are happy.

A great many when faced with matters of severe illness need to trust their doctor and just accept what they are told.

However there are a group who remember the few that do much better than expected and the cases of miracles they hear about in their religious tradition and on the TV. Many of these want to know, in detail, everything possible which might improve their outcomes. Sadly few medical professionals can tell them.

But now with the internet and the huge amount of information online it is possible for people who need to know to find out what they can do to improve their chances of recovery. I do offer a word of warning. It is not likely that there is just one herb, or highland berry, or magical elixir which will make the difference in terminal disease. It is much more likely that your cancer remedy will be a mixture of a healing diet, exercise, good self care, a useful psychology, social support and a connection to nature and place.

The fact that some people do much better than expected indicates that there is a physiological process by which cancers can regress and sometimes disappear altogether. So do keep hope alive and in the meantime explore what improves your quality of life. As one of the survivors in my research said, "Quality, quality, make every second count."

Dr Harriet Denz-Penhey is an internationally recognized health researcher who has done groundbreaking research into patient self care in serious illness. The web site http://www.cancerremedies.org discusses aspects of natural cancer treatment and remedies for good general health.

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Breast Cancer Alternative Treatments - Cure Your Cancer With the Help of Alternative Treatments!

All kinds of alternative treatments and natural remedies are getting more and more popular. This is mostly very positive but it can have some negative sides. The more people learn about different treatments options the better. People who have breast cancer need all the help they can get and every little detail, can become very helpful. Should you be using breast cancer alternative treatments?

Everyone knows how dangerous, expensive and ineffective conventional treatments are, so it is natural that people look for ways to heal themselves more effectively. That really is the goal for people - heal themselves. If there is something more effective and safer that traditional chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, then people will use them.

I guess that the main danger with various alternative treatments and remedies, is that you never really know what works and what does not. Certainly there are people, who take advantage of people, and sell them worthless junk, that is suppose to be an effective remedy for breast cancer. But then again there are people, who are honest and have done extensive research into various breast cancer alternative treatments. There is no magic pill that will eliminate cancer, but there are certainly many things you can do, to reduce the symptoms of traditional cancer treatments and make them more effective.

Diet and exercise are very important and they can make a very big difference. Women who have a proper diet, which includes essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients, and who exercise regularly, have a much bigger chance to beat cancer. Exercise can increase energy level, reduce stress and depression. It is recommended by doctors to have a diet, that is high on fruits and vegetables, such as cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, and kale. and low on animal fats.

This is not much but all of these little details can become very important later on. Is your diet what it should be? Are you exercising enough? Cancer cells thrive in some condition and suffer in other conditions. So the goal is through proper diet, supplements, natural remedies and treatments to make conditions, where the cancer cells can no thrive. There are so many things you can do yourself, to stop the spreading of cancer cells.

The goal is not to replace conventional treatments all together and replace them with breast cancer alternative treatments, but to combine them and make the fight against breast cancer more effective. People should work together and not get stuck in their beliefs, how things should work in their mind.

Discover the most effective, safest and cheapest alternative treatments and home remedies to revive your health. No matter what condition or illness you have, you can find help. http://www.home-remedies-and-alternative-treatments.info/beat_cancer.html

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Cancer Remedies - Medical Vs Natural Cancer Treatments

There is a strong move within the medical communities and government bodies such as the US FDA to make sure that people who are ill are not subject to scam claims about alternative cancer remedies and natural cancer treatments.

This would be fair enough if the medical community was actually offering treatments that worked. Unfortunately some of them have been shown to be medically ineffective. An important medical paper in 2004 showed that chemotherapy only increased the average 5 year survival rates by just over 2% (reference below).

Chemotherapy for breast cancer, for example, has an average increased 5-year survival rate of only 1.5%. A number of cancers (soft tissue sarcoma, melanoma of skin, uterus, prostate, bladder, kidney and multiple myeloma) were shown to have no increase in survival due to chemotherapy at all.

Doctors often talk about patients having unrealistic expectations about the efficacy of drugs, but to my way of thinking they only have themselves to blame. None of the doctors I work closely with in our medical school had ever spoken to patients about the low effectiveness of chemotherapy. In fact only one of them knew exactly how ineffective the drugs actually were.

If we take the breast cancer example again - women with breast cancer have a 78-85% 5-year survival rate in Australia, of which only 1.5% was due to chemotherapy. None of my friends who have had breast cancer were told that the average length of survival for breast cancer is 20 years nor about the high survival rate, nor about the low impact of chemotherapy. All believed that they needed chemotherapy to have any hope of survival.

The flip side of this terrible situation is that if only 1.5% of survivors are due to chemotherapy, then 76.5-83.5% is due to other things. Surgery and radiotherapy will play some part. But so too, does the body's natural ability to heal. If you really want to keep on living it makes sense to spend a little time exploring those aspects of healing, known to science and to our cultural traditions which will improve our quality of life, and hopefully, our longevity.

There is much known to science but a lot of this is tucked away in health psychology text books and journals. Some of this is known through pop psychology but may not be accurate. For example, it is often believed that to survive you have to be positive all the time. My own research has shown that this is not the case, however being positive most of the time is one of the characteristics of survivors.

Governmental bodies and anti-scam scientists are particularly hard on those who promote supplements suggesting that all people are after is making money out of the sick. No doubt this is sometimes the case. But what excuse is there for promoting chemotherapy as THE answer to cancer when it only increases survival by an average of just over 2% and in some cases, is not of benefit at all. Who benefits from this? Who is paid the big money?

As a researcher I have to say that it is highly unlikely that just one supplement, herb, fancy berry from the highlands of somewhere will be sufficient to make the difference of life or death. However there are some good scientific pointers to suggest that avoiding sugar and flour which feed cancers, adding anti cancer foods of brightly colored vegetables and fruit, adding some supplements proven to be advantageous, taking regular exercise, and undertaking certain self care activities would definitely be positive to health. And many regions around the world have their traditional cancer remedies, their natural cancer treatments which might be good to add to your overall regimen. Check out all of your options and don't let yourself be bullied by anyone.

Reference: Morgan G, Ward R, Barton M. The contribution of cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adult malignancies. Clinical Oncology 2004;16:549-560. This is reasonably readable and anyone with cancer should get a copy (try your university medical library - they can download it for you). It isn't very chatty, mostly just how they came to the figures for each of the main cancers.

Dr Harriet Denz-Penhey is an internationally recognized health researcher who has done groundbreaking research into patient self care in serious illness. The web site http://www.cancerremedies.org discusses aspects of natural cancer treatment and remedies for good general health.

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