s are also better for younger patients.
Overall, despite treatment, 5-year survival for all types of lung cancer in Australia is not good: 11% for males and 14% for females. Survival for large cell carcinoma is poorer than that for squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma, though better than for small cell carcinoma. One estimate places 5-year survival for large cell carcinoma at 11%.
How is Lung Cancer (Large Cell Carcinoma of the Lung) Treated?
- Surgery offers the best chance of cure, but is usually only possible with small tumours that have not yet spread (stage I or II). In some cases, lobectomy may be more appropriate than limited resection.
- If surgical treatment is to be given, the lymph nodes draining the tumour should be sampled and removed if the cancer has spread.Radiotherapy:
- Patients with tumours which are not suitable for surgical resection can benefit from radiotherapy to the chest.
- Patients with early disease (Stage I or II cancer) who have had the tumour completely surgically removed do not usually need radiotherapy.
- Chemotherapy can increase survival for patients with advanced cancer who are otherwise medically fit. Chemotherapy may also have improve quality of life for these patients.
- If chemotherapy is to be used, combination regimes (using more than one drug together) are better than single-drug regimes. Chemotherapy using platinum-based drugs produces the best results.
New classes of treatment agents, such as biological therapies, are finding a place alongside chemotherapy. Watch this site for breaking news regarding this treatment.
Lung symptoms commonly reported by patients with incurable lung cancer include shortness of breath from pleural effusion, coughing, or haemoptysis (coughing up blood). Pain may be from the lung tumour itself, or from spread (metastasis) to other organs, including bone. Treatment is available for all of these symptoms. In some cases, radiotherapy may be used to manage cancer pain.
Spinal cord compression is a complication of cancer spread to the spine which requires urgent treatment.
Lung Cancer (Large Cell Carcinoma of the Lung) References
- Alberg AJ, Samet JM. ‘Epidemiology of lung cancer’, Chest. 2003, 123:21S-49S
- Beckles MA, Spiro SG, Colice GL, Rudd RM. ‘Initial evaluation of the patient with lung cancer: symptoms, signs, laboratory tests and paraneoplastic syndromes,’ Chest. 2003, 123:97S-104S
- Braunwald, Fauci, Kasper, Hauser, Longo, Jameson. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 16th Edition. McGraw-Hill. 2005.
- Cotran RS, Kumar V, Collins T. Robbins Pathological Basis of Disease Sixth Ed. WB Saunders Company 1999.
- The Cancer Council Australia. ‘Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Management of Lung Cancer’ [online]. National Health and Medical Research Council. 2004. Available at URL: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications (last accessed 1/4/07)
- Talley NJ, O’Connor S. Clinical Examination Fourth Ed. MacLennan & Petty 2001.