Hi Friends, this is true! Lung Cancer does metastasize or spread from where it started in to the other parts of the body.
This is what is called the Advanced Lung Cancer. Even when it is first diagnosed cancer may be advanced.
Also it may come back some time after the first treatment which is referred as recurrent cancer.
Let’s see how this spreads. Spread can be local and even to other parts of the body. Local spread means the cancer has extended from where it started in the lung. It may have grown into the chest wall and lining of the lung (the pleura) or another part of the same lung, for example an airway.
Know This! This disease by specialists is regarded as advanced if the fluid around the lung contains cancer cells. This condition is called ‘pleural effusion’.
They love to travel!!! Secondary cancer or metastasis is a cancer that has spread to another part of the body. Traveling through the lymphatic system or bloodstream and lodged in another part of the body, these lung cancer cells start to grow there.
Now let’s see where actually this disease spreads. There are some parts of the body that lung cancer cells are more likely to travel to. The commonest sites of this disease spread are the lymph nodes within the abdomen, chest, or, armpit, or neck and the liver, the brain and the bones.
Note that not all lung cancers will spread and also not all will spread to the same places. Different types of lung cancer commonly spread to different parts of the body.
How can you detect? Mostly advanced lung cancer shows symptoms. This means that this disease does not usually present any symptoms until it has spread to neighboring tissues or organs. When this disease has metastasized, the following lung cancer symptoms are usually experienced:
- Jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes)
- Feeling weak in the arms and/or legs
- Bone pain
- Due to cancer spreading to lymph nodes, or skin masses or lumps develop near the skin on other parts of the body
- Dizziness
- Seizures
Now you want to know how this advanced lung cancer can be treated. There are a number of new treatments that can be used against this advanced lung cancer or recurrent cancer. These treatments may keep the disease under control, not allowing spreading further.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy can both be used to treat advanced lung cancer. Studies reveal that Chemotherapy can prolong survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
Which treatment is best for the patient depends on
- Type of lung cancer
- From where the cancer has spread
- Consideration of the treatment you have already had
- Other medical conditions of the patient
Good! If the cancer spread is just in one area, for example in one or two bones, then radiotherapy is the best. If the doctor thinks the cancer is in more than one area of the body, then chemotherapy is opted.
Simple logic behind this kind of treatment is because chemotherapy treats the whole body and radiotherapy treats only the area it is aimed at.
If the person already had radiotherapy to a particular part of the body then the treatment differs. The doctor may suggest chemotherapy instead.
So now you understand well why the treatment is not the same for all with lung cancer. Hope you now have much of information on advanced lung cancer.
