Doctors may refer to metastatic lung cancer as advanced lung cancer.
Types of Advanced Lung Cancer
Approximately 85% of all lung cancers arenon-small cell lung cancers.
Small cell lung cancer accounts for the remaining percentage of cases.
Illustration by James Bascara, Verywell
Stages
Advanced lung canceris a term usually applied to cancer that has reached stage 3B or 4.
Traditionally, a tissue sample, orbiopsy, would be surgically taken from the cancer site.
But doctors are increasingly using aliquid biopsy testto identify DNA from the tumor circulating in your plasma.
Treatment
Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer deaths.
Most importantly, keep your focus on the fact that thingscontinueto improve.
There are two basic categories of treatment: Systemic therapy and local therapy.
Systemic therapies includechemotherapy, immunotherapy, andtargeted therapies.
Local therapies may be used in some cases.
The drugs that target these cells, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, send signals to stop that cell growth.
Other mutations that medications now target includeALKandROS1 mutations.
Additional therapies have been approved and more are regularly being made available.
you’re able to use theironline databaseto search for trials seeking participants.
But they may occasionally be used along with the systemic treatments in the treatment of advanced lung cancer.
Another path doctors have explored is using non-cancer drugs to help lung cancer patients.
The current five-year survival for advanced lung cancer is just under 7%.
That said, there are long-term survivors of advanced lung cancer, and that number is growing.
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