Radiation Therapy for Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung

Approximately 50,000 new cases of carcinoma or non-small-cell lung are diagnosed each year in the United States. This is an increase from the 35,000 in 1968 and 10,000 in 1970 reported nationally. The annual increase and higher percentage of Blacks in diagnosed carcinoma cases suggests the need for further studies.

NSCLC includes lung adenocarcinoma (33%), squamous cell carcinoma (26%), large cell carcinoma (10%) and adenocarcinoma combined with squamous cell carcinoma (9%). Most NSCLC patients present with inoperable disease. Adenocarcinoma is the most frequent type and the most common cause of cancer-related death.

Carcinoma, non-small-cell lung is the most common lung cancer, and more common among younger people and men who are current cigarette or former tobacco smokers.

stage I NSCLC can be cured with surgery, postoperative adjuvant therapy, or both. Stage II-III disease, however, is largely incurable, although some tumors can be cured and progression can be prevented by chemotherapy prior to surgery. Stage IV NSCLC typically progresses, but rarely if at all becomes wholly eradicated if complete surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy are performed.

The most accurate sign of respiratory-related carcinoma is an elevated serum pneumoniticcarrier carboxyhemoglobin level. Other signs of carcinoma, non-small-cell lung include dyspnea, cough, heaviness (mixed), weight loss, fever, blood in sputum, hemoptysis (bloody), coughing blood, hemoptysis without a cough, neck mass, chest fullness (>2 weeks), shortness of breath (>3 weeks), or pleural effusion (>2 weeks).

There is some evidence that, overall, patients with carcinoma have a better survival rate when they undergo surgery than medical treatment, though the discrepancy is small. There is no clear overall survival difference between surgery and medical therapies. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between medical and surgical treatments for certain subsets of patients with specific cancer types. The type or degree of surgical resection, surgical lymph node dissection, and timing of surgery influence survival; there may be the need for additional clinical trials involving different treatments to decide how best to manage and treat lung cancer.

RT in patients diagnosed with cancer is a safe and effective treatment. Results from a recent clinical trial showed for the first time that RT can cause cutaneous side effects which are mostly reversible if promptly treated.

This review confirms that radiotherapy in conjunction with chemotherapy is an effective antitumor treatment. A recent metaanalysis of the current literature supports the fact that radiation therapy is a [potential treatment]] for many common forms of cancer.

Patients with small-stage endometrioid uterine cancer typically receive only radiotherapy or radiotherapy plus a chemotherapy or multimodality combination. The decision to use radiotherapy or chemotherapy vs chemotherapy alone depends on the type, location, and histology.

The majority of patients were managed adequately under the supervision of a radiation oncologist with or without radiographers, including patients with advanced stage, unfavorable prognostic factors, and comorbidities. Most patients receiving high-dose thoracic, or concomitant thoracic and abdominal, radiotherapy for early-stage NSCLC can expect improved outcomes from the addition of adjuvant radiotherapy-based therapy.

For patients with NSCLC, RT is associated with substantial psychological benefit, though physical factors may partially offset this. For carcinoma, NSCLC patients treated with RT have good quality of life compared with patients treated with postoperative RT, and overall survival is equivalent. Radiation appears to be a cost-effective treatment strategy for NSCLC.