After initial treatment for lung cancer, it is important to receive follow-up care.
• Your oncologist will schedule regular checkups, usually every 3 to 4 months, depending on the therapies used in initial treatment. After 2 to 3 years, regular checkups will occur less often but more than just once a year, depending on your medical history.
• Checkups include a physical exam, blood tests, chest X-rays, and any other laboratory tests recommended by your oncologist. A CT scan is usually done every 3 to 6 months for the first 2 to 3 years, and then once a year after that.
Radiation therapy may be used to prevent small cell lung cancer from growing in the brain. This is called prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI). PCI may be most beneficial if you have limited small cell lung cancer and have had successful treatment with chemotherapy and radiation therapy to the chest. But PCI is not advised for older people whose thinking process may be impaired.
Your emotional reactions are likely to vary during your treatment depending on how you feel, your prognosis, the treatment methods used, and your decisions about treatment.
Treatment if the condition gets worse
The long-term outcome (prognosis) for lung cancer that does not respond to treatment as hoped or that comes back after being treated is poor, and treatment focuses on managing your pain and improving your quality of life (palliative care).
Treatment to help control your symptoms (such as pain, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, and weakness) may include
• Radiation therapy. This may be done to shrink cancers that make swallowing or breathing difficult or that are causing pain.
• Chemotherapy.
• Chemotherapy combined with radiation therapy.
• Surgery, if your cancer has spread to your brain.
• Laser surgery or internal radiation therapy (brachytherapy).
• Radiation applied directly to the cancer during surgery.
Other treatments being studied for lung cancer include radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, and cryoablation. Each of these is a way of trying to destroy the cancer cells without major surgery. These treatments may be useful for people who are not able to have surgery either because they are in poor health or because their cancer is too advanced.
Additional treatment measures
• Oxygen therapy may relieve your shortness of breath. It is usually used at the end stage of the disease, but it may also be used for pneumonia or other treatable conditions.
• Thoracentesis is used to remove fluid from around your lungs (pleural effusion). A large amount of fluid may cause pain and shortness of breath.
• Pleurodesis is used to prevent fluid buildup around your lungs. Pleurodesis is a procedure that is intended to cause inflammation of the lining around your lungs. The irritated tissue reacts by producing scar tissue, which causes the two layers of the lung lining to stick together. This removes the space where fluid can build up around your lungs. Pleurodesis is commonly used to treat fluid buildup around your lungs that returns after repeated thoracentesis.
• Small tubes (pleural catheters) to drain fluid from around the lungs are used to relieve fluid buildup (pleural effusion).
• Treatments that burn (cauterize) selected areas of blocked airways or that place stents small, coiled, wire-mesh tubes that can be inserted into a blocked airway and expanded to hold it open are also becoming more common.
• Pain medicines can be taken regularly. These may include prescribed narcotic medicines, such as codeine, or medicines you can buy without a prescription, such as aspirin and similar drugs.
• Your oncologist will schedule regular checkups, usually every 3 to 4 months, depending on the therapies used in initial treatment. After 2 to 3 years, regular checkups will occur less often but more than just once a year, depending on your medical history.
• Checkups include a physical exam, blood tests, chest X-rays, and any other laboratory tests recommended by your oncologist. A CT scan is usually done every 3 to 6 months for the first 2 to 3 years, and then once a year after that.
Radiation therapy may be used to prevent small cell lung cancer from growing in the brain. This is called prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI). PCI may be most beneficial if you have limited small cell lung cancer and have had successful treatment with chemotherapy and radiation therapy to the chest. But PCI is not advised for older people whose thinking process may be impaired.
Your emotional reactions are likely to vary during your treatment depending on how you feel, your prognosis, the treatment methods used, and your decisions about treatment.
Treatment if the condition gets worse
The long-term outcome (prognosis) for lung cancer that does not respond to treatment as hoped or that comes back after being treated is poor, and treatment focuses on managing your pain and improving your quality of life (palliative care).
Treatment to help control your symptoms (such as pain, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, and weakness) may include
• Radiation therapy. This may be done to shrink cancers that make swallowing or breathing difficult or that are causing pain.
• Chemotherapy.
• Chemotherapy combined with radiation therapy.
• Surgery, if your cancer has spread to your brain.
• Laser surgery or internal radiation therapy (brachytherapy).
• Radiation applied directly to the cancer during surgery.
Other treatments being studied for lung cancer include radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, and cryoablation. Each of these is a way of trying to destroy the cancer cells without major surgery. These treatments may be useful for people who are not able to have surgery either because they are in poor health or because their cancer is too advanced.
Additional treatment measures
• Oxygen therapy may relieve your shortness of breath. It is usually used at the end stage of the disease, but it may also be used for pneumonia or other treatable conditions.
• Thoracentesis is used to remove fluid from around your lungs (pleural effusion). A large amount of fluid may cause pain and shortness of breath.
• Pleurodesis is used to prevent fluid buildup around your lungs. Pleurodesis is a procedure that is intended to cause inflammation of the lining around your lungs. The irritated tissue reacts by producing scar tissue, which causes the two layers of the lung lining to stick together. This removes the space where fluid can build up around your lungs. Pleurodesis is commonly used to treat fluid buildup around your lungs that returns after repeated thoracentesis.
• Small tubes (pleural catheters) to drain fluid from around the lungs are used to relieve fluid buildup (pleural effusion).
• Treatments that burn (cauterize) selected areas of blocked airways or that place stents small, coiled, wire-mesh tubes that can be inserted into a blocked airway and expanded to hold it open are also becoming more common.
• Pain medicines can be taken regularly. These may include prescribed narcotic medicines, such as codeine, or medicines you can buy without a prescription, such as aspirin and similar drugs.
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