Surgery, Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy as Lung Cancer Treatments

chemotherapy
1. side effects
  1. feeling tired and weak
  2. feeling sick
  3. hair loss
  4. headaches
  5. coughing
  6. temperature is lower than normal
  7. Aching muscles
2. drugs
  1. Mitomycin
  2. Ifosfamide
  3. Cisplatin
  4. Cyclophosphamide
  5. Doxorubicin
  6. Vincristine
  7. Prednisolone
3. Methods
  1. injection in the blood stream
  2. intravenous infusion
  3. tablets
  4. capsules
4. why a doctor may suggest chemotherapy
  1. to reduce the size of the cancer
  2. to relieve symptoms
  3. increase life expectancy
  4. to control the cancer or put it into remission
    1. complete remission
      1. cancer not seen on scans
    2. partial remission
      1. the treatment killed some of the cells so the cancer shrunk but is still visible on scans
  5. to stop a cancer from growing back after radiotherapy or surgery
  6. if a cancer has spread from original area
radiotherapy
1. types
  1. external
    1. using x-rays
    2. protons
  2. internal
    1. drinking a liquid with radioactive material which is taken up by cancer cells
    2. radioactive metal (brachytherapy)
    3. radiotherapy wires
    4. radioactive chemical therapies
      1. strontium
      2. iodine
      3. phosphorus
      4. radium 223 therapy
2. side effects
  1. tiredness and weakness due to low levels of red blood cells
  2. sore skin
    1. redder and darker than usual
    2. dry and itchy
    3. area being treated
  3. long term
    1. skin colour changes
    2. dry mouth
    3. breathing problems
    4. infertility
    5. low sex drive
    6. long term pain
    7. bowel changes
  4. chest radiotherapy side effects
    1. swelling and soreness in throat
    2. difficulty swallowing solid foods
      1. loss of appetite
    3. weight loss due to problems eating
    4. inflammation on lungs
    5. breathlessness
3. techniques
  1. conformal beam techniques
    1. Radiation is delivered from many beams at the same time. This allows the radiation to be concentrated on the tumour with less damage to nearby normal tissues.
  2. Intraoperative radiation therapy
    1. Radiation is delivered to a tumour during surgery
  3. Radiosensitisers
    1. These drugs increase radiation's damaging effect on cancer cells
  4. Radioprotectors
    1. These drugs protect normal cells from radiation damage while nearby cancer cells are destroyed.
  5. Radioimmunotherapy
    1. Radioactive substances are attached to antibodies, defensive chemicals made by the body's immune system. These antibodies target cancer cells and deliver damaging radioactivity only to them.
surgery
1. tests taken beforehand
  1. blood test
  2. urine test
  3. chest x-ray
  4. electrocardiogram (ECG)
2. having an anaesthetic
  1. Local anaesthetic
    1. the anaesthetist injects anaesthetic to numb the part of your body being operated on
  2. Regional anaesthetic
    1. the anaesthetist numbs a large area or part of your body, for example, using an injection into your spine (epidural) to numb your lower body
  3. General anaesthetic
    1. patient not aware of anything during the operation
3. types
  1. Lobectomy
    1. where one or more large parts of the lung (called lobes) are removed.
  2. Pneumonectomy
    1. where the entire lung is removed. This is used when the cancer is located in the middle of the lung or has spread throughout the lung.
  3. segmentectomy
    1. where a small piece of the lung is removed
    2. This procedure is only suitable for a small number of patients as it is only used if your doctors think your cancer is small and limited to one area of the lung
    3. This is usually very early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer.

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Surgery, Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy as Lung Cancer Treatments

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