Treatment+of+Lung+Cancer



=No Direct Cure Yet but Getting There.= ===Currently, there is no one treatment that can be expected to cure lung cancer. Depending on individual patient's conditions and location of the cancer, the curing method is different. Scientists over the years have been experimenting with all sorts of drugs and methods to destroy cancerous cells, but only some have been found to help stop the cancerous cells from spreading. However, there are THREE common treatment to cure lung cancer.===

Surgery
===Through surgery, surgeons can remove the cancerous part of the body and prevent it from spreading. This is for slow spreading cancer and the cancerous cells have to be in focused areas. The patient must also be in a condition where he/she is conscious at all times. However, when the cancerous area in the body is at or surrounding an important organ, it risens the risk of death. There is only a 37% rate of survival if the surgery was done on the lungs, 14% survival rate if done on the heart, and 4% survival rate if done on the brain.===

Radiation
===Radiation is where high energy waves are sent through the body and kills cancerous cells wherever they are found in the body. This also prevents harm to important organs, therefore it is good for killing cancer cells in the lung and other important organs. However, since it is still "radiation", therefore there is still a high risk of causing even more damaged cells because of the waves.===

Chemotherapy
===Chemotherapy is the applying of chemicals to destory cancer cells with chemical reactions. The anticancer drugs and chemicals are injected or given by mouth so that they pass through the body tissues and destorys any cancer cells they encounter with (the only exception is the brain since there is a protective barrier that prohibits the entering of drugs). Since it passes through the blood, it is good for largely spread cancerous areas and kills all cancer cells except those ones in the brain. However, there is no specific combination of chemicals discovered to cure all problems. The dosage and drugs are used on patients according to their health conditions and the level of cancer. On the other hand, chemotherapy has many side effects:===
 * Nausea [[image:http://www.dmacdigest.com/Images/cancer/chemotherapy.jpg width="321" height="301" align="right" caption="This is a diagram showing how the chemotherapy is done. Almost all patients have been treated with chemotherapy at some time duri" link="http://www.dmacdigest.com/cancer.html"]]
 * Vomiting
 * Skin rash
 * Hair loss
 * Mouth ulcers
 * low blood counts
 * diarrhoea
 * Fluid retention
 * High blood pressure
 * Heart attack
 * Loss of sex drive
 * Hot flushes
 * Numbness in limbs
 * Extreme abdominal pain
 * Allergy symptoms

· Targeted Therapies: designed only to treat cancerous cells (single antibodies)
· Photodynamic Therapy: using light to shine on cancer-infected areas and to activate the drugs

What are the three main types of treatments for lung cancer?
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