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Treatment of lung cancer

Treatment of lung cancer is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Treatment of lung cancer rather than just read about it. In short: 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…

Treatment of lung cancer — main illustration
Treatment of lung cancer — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Treatment of lung cancer belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Treatment of lung cancer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Treatment of lung cancer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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 three 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.

Surgery

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.

Chemotherapy In patients with stage 3 lung cancer that cannot be removed, treatment with combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy improves survival significantly.

Chemotherapeutic Agents Used for Treatment of stage IV NSCLC Chemotherapy for NSCLC usually includes combination of two drugs (chemotherapy doublet), with one of the agents is cisplatin or carboplatin. In 2002, Schiller at al. published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a study that compared four chemotherapy regimens for advanced NSCLC, cisplatin and paclitaxel, cisplatin and gemcitabine, cisplatin and docetaxel, and carboplatin and paclitaxel. The study was well powered, with 1207 patients enrolled. None of the four chemotherapy regimens offered a significant advantage over the others. In 2008, Scagliotti et al. published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology a study that compared cisplatin plus gemcitabine with cisplatin plus pemetrexed in chemotherapy-naive patients with advanced NSCLC. Overall survival was statistically superior for cisplatin/pemetrexed versus cisplatin/gemcitabine in patients with adenocarcinoma and large-cell carcinoma histology, while patients with squamous cell histology had a significant improvement in survival with cisplatin/gemcitabine versus cisplatin/pemetrexed. These two studies made significant impact on the chemotherapy choices for treating NSCLC, with cisplatin or carboplatin as the backbone of all the chemotherapy treatments protocols. Pemetrexed is provided with platinum-based chemotherapy to patients with nonsquamous NSCLC. Gemcitabine is provided with platinum-based drug to patients with squamous NSCLC.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Treatment of lung cancer: The main treatment arms of phase 3 clinical trials providing immunotherapy in the first line for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Nivolumab (Nivo), Pembrolizumab (Pembro), atezolizumab (Atezo), Bevacizumab (Beva), Ipilimumab (Ipi). Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2020 13(11):373.https://doi.org/10.3390/ph13110373
The main treatment arms of phase 3 clinical trials providing immunotherapy in the first line for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Nivolumab (Nivo), Pembrolizumab (Pembro), atezolizumab (Atezo), Bevacizumab (Beva), Ipilimumab (Ipi). Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2020 13(11):373.https://doi.org/10.3390/ph13110373
Treatment of lung cancer: Treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). First line Immunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.[16]
Treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). First line Immunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.[16]
Treatment of lung cancer: Overall survival in non-small lung cancer patients treated with immunotherapy and/or chemotherapy in the first line for advanced or metastatic disease. Results of the main treatment arms of phase 3 clinical trials. pembrolizumab (Pembro), Nivolumab (Nivo), Atezolizumab (Atezo), Bevacizumab (Beva), Ipilimumab (Ipi), Chemotherapy (Chemo), Months (M), Hazard Ratio (HR). Source: First line Immunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Nasser NJ, Gorenberg M, Agbarya A. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2020 13(11):373.https://doi.org/10.3390/ph13110373 [16]
Overall survival in non-small lung cancer patients treated with immunotherapy and/or chemotherapy in the first line for advanced or metastatic disease. Results of the main treatment arms of phase 3 clinical trials. pembrolizumab (Pembro), Nivolumab (Nivo), Atezolizumab (Atezo), Bevacizumab (Beva), Ipilimumab (Ipi), Chemotherapy (Chemo), Months (M), Hazard Ratio (HR). Source: First line Immunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Nasser NJ, Gorenberg M, Agbarya A. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2020 13(11):373.https://doi.org/10.3390/ph13110373 [16]

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Treatment of lung cancer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Treatment of lung cancer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Treatment of lung cancer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Treatment of lung cancer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Treatment of lung cancer

In research
Treatment of lung cancer appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Treatment of lung cancer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Treatment of lung cancer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cancer treatments, Lung cancer, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Treatment of lung cancer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Treatment of lung cancer in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Treatment of lung cancer means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Treatment of lung cancer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Treatment of lung cancer in simple terms?

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 c…

Why does Treatment of lung cancer matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Treatment of lung cancer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Treatment of lung cancer.

Tags

  • Cancer treatments
  • Lung cancer

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