Types of Lung Cancer and Prognosis

cancer and prognosis via lungevity.org

The most important aspect of lung cancer management is staging staging is a way for doctors to determine the extent of the tumors growth and we look at three main factors when we

stage a patient for lung cancer the first factor is the tumor itself we look at how big it is and

measure it we look at where it's located whether it involves other structures in the chest the

second factor are the lymph nodes the lymph nodes that we're really interested in are called

mediastinal lymph nodes these are located in the central part of the chest usually when lung

cancer spreads to the lymph nodes from either the left or the right side they will go and

accumulate in the lymph nodes in the central part of the chest so these lymph nodes are of

great importance in the staging process the third aspect of staging is what we call systemic

disease or metastasis this means that the tumor has spread outside of that side of the chest and has gone to other parts of the body such as the brain adrenal glands or to the bones the way

See also: Types of Lung Cancer Tumors

that we stage radiographically or by films is with the use of CT scans the other way that

complements CT scanning is called a PET scan a PET scan is a special nuclear medicine study
where the doctor will inject a safe radioactive chemical that's attached to sugar molecules and

these molecules are taken up by the tumor cells the patient is then taken through a scanner

where the tumor cells will then glow and light up wherever the tumor cells are present this has been a great advance in staging of lung cancer nevertheless even if we see spread on a PET

scan we often like to confirm that with tissue diagnosis so we will often biopsy these lymph

nodes in the central part of the chest with an outpatient procedure if it's spread to other parts

of the body such as to other organs it's often important to confirm that with the tissue

 diagnosis as well it should be understood though that staging which is classified from stages

one through four does not automatically determine your treatment and it's not automatically

a concrete prognosis for example we often take patients with stage 4 lung cancer to surgery

and they do quite well so just because you are Stage four does not mean you fit into this rigid box.

Tag:
the 4 types of lung cancer, types of lung cancer and survival rates, what are the four types of lung cancer, adenocarcinoma lung cancer, types of small cell lung cancer, what is the most aggressive form of lung cancer?, lung cancer treatment, lung cancer pictures
source: youtube.com

Share this post