How is lung cancer found

People who do not want standard treatments or are not cured by standard treatments may want to participate in clinical trials. These are ongoing in most parts of the United States and in some other countries around the world for all stages of lung cancer. Palliative care is a kind of care for people who have a serious illness.

It's different from care to cure your illness. Its goal is to improve your quality of life—not just in your body but also in your mind and spirit. You can have this care along with treatment to cure your illness.

Palliative care providers will work to help control pain or side effects. They may help you decide what treatment you want or don't want. And they can help your loved ones understand how to support you. One study of people with non-small cell lung cancer who started palliative care when they were diagnosed with lung cancer found that they not only felt better but also lived a little longer than the people who didn't have palliative care.

For more information, see the topic Palliative Care. For some people who have advanced cancer, a time comes when treatment to cure the cancer no longer seems like a good choice.

This can be because the side effects, time, and costs of treatment are greater than the promise of cure or relief. But you can still get treatment to make you as comfortable as possible during the time you have left. You and your doctor can decide when you may be ready for hospice care.

Most lung cancers are caused by smoking. If you use tobacco, you can help prevent lung cancer by quitting. During treatment for any stage of lung cancer, there are steps you can take at home to manage some symptoms and side effects. Be sure to follow any instructions your doctor has given you. If you smoke and have lung cancer, quitting smoking will make your treatment more effective and may help you live longer.

Smoking delays healing after surgery, so you may have a better recovery from lung cancer surgery if you have quit smoking. People with early-stage lung cancer who continue to smoke during radiation therapy have been shown to have shorter survival times than those who do not smoke. Smoking may also make chemotherapy less effective. The nicotine in tobacco seems to help the cancer cells and their blood supply multiply while also protecting the cancer cells from destruction.

For information and help quitting smoking, see the topic Quitting Smoking. Medicines for lung cancer mainly involve chemotherapy. Other medicines may be used to help with pain. Chemotherapy is the most effective treatment for small cell lung cancer.

It can help control the growth and spread of the cancer, but it cures lung cancer in only a small number of people. It also may be used to treat more advanced stages of non-small cell lung cancer. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the medicines enter your bloodstream, travel through your body, and kill cancer cells both inside and outside the lung area. Some chemotherapy drugs are taken by mouth orally , while others are injected into a vein intravenous, or IV.

Most chemotherapy causes some side effects. Your doctor may prescribe medicines to control nausea or vomiting. You may be concerned about losing your hair from cancer treatment. Not all chemotherapy medicines cause hair loss, and some people have only mild thinning that is noticeable only to them. Talk to your doctor about whether hair loss is an expected side effect of the medicines you will receive.

Chemotherapy may be combined with surgery. It may be given before or after surgery to kill cancer cells. Pain is one of the main concerns of people who have cancer. But cancer pain can almost always be controlled with medicines and other options. Medicines used for cancer pain include prescribed medicines, such as hydrocodone or morphine , or nonprescription medicines, such as aspirin and similar drugs. Lung surgery to remove the cancer may be an option when your cancer is in only one lung or present in one lung and in nearby lymph nodes.

It usually is done only if your doctor thinks all the cancer can be removed and your general health is good enough for you to handle the surgery. Nearby lymph nodes may also be removed to find out whether the cancer has spread. The side effects from surgery will depend on the type of surgery that you have. There is less pain with surgery that is minimally invasive VATS than the traditional surgery thoracotomy. You may have numbness and tingling in the chest area. This usually goes away in a few weeks or months.

Radiation treatment is the use of high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Most radiation for lung cancer is given externally, which means that the radiation comes from a machine outside the body. Radiation is often used in combination with surgery or chemotherapy or both. But it may be used alone if surgery is not possible. People who can't have surgery may have a special type of radiation called stereotactic radiosurgery SRS.

This isn't surgery but a series of very high doses of radiation that are aimed at the cancer. SRS is usually given to treat tumors that have spread to the brain. Radiation may be used to prevent small cell lung cancer from growing in your brain. This is called prophylactic cranial irradiation PCI. Radiation also may be used as palliative care to:. Radiation may cause side effects , such as skin changes, fatigue, and trouble swallowing. People sometimes use complementary treatments along with medical treatment to help relieve symptoms and side effects of cancer treatments.

Some of the complementary therapies that may be helpful include:. These mind-body treatments may help you feel better. They can make it easier to cope with treatment. They also may reduce chronic low back pain, joint pain, headaches, and pain from treatments. Before you try a complementary therapy, talk to your doctor about the possible value and potential side effects.

Let your doctor know if you are already using any such therapies. They are not meant to take the place of standard medical treatment. Author: Healthwise Staff. Medical Review: E. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated, disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use.

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Updated visitor guidelines. You are here Home » Lung Cancer. Top of the page. Topic Overview What is lung cancer? What are the symptoms? The first signs of lung cancer may include: Coughing. Feeling short of breath.

Chest pain. Having blood in any mucus that you cough up. If the cancer spreads within and beyond the chest, other symptoms may occur. How is lung cancer diagnosed? How is it treated? Can you prevent lung cancer? Health Tools Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health. Decision Points focus on key medical care decisions that are important to many health problems.

Actionsets are designed to help people take an active role in managing a health condition. Cause More than 8 out of 10 lung cancers are caused by smoking. Cancer also may be caused by gene changes mutations that occur as you get older.

Symptoms Symptoms of lung cancer may include: Coughing symptoms , such as: A new cough or a cough that doesn't go away. In smokers who have a chronic cough, a change in how severe their cough is or how much they cough. Coughing up blood or bloody mucus. Chest symptoms , such as: Chest, shoulder, or back pain that doesn't go away and often gets worse with deep breathing. New wheezing. Shortness of breath. General symptoms , such as: Swelling in the neck and face.

Difficulty swallowing. Weight loss and loss of appetite. Increasing fatigue and weakness. Recurring respiratory infections, such as pneumonia. What Happens Lung cancer can start anywhere in the lungs and may affect any part of the respiratory system. This can cause breathing or heart problems, such as: Pleural effusion, which is the buildup of fluid between the outer lining of the lungs and the chest wall.

This is a common condition with lung cancer. Coughing up large amounts of bloody sputum. Collapse of a lung pneumothorax. Blockage of the airway bronchial obstruction. Recurrent infections, such as pneumonia. Pericardial effusion, which is the buildup of fluid in the space between the heart and the sac around the heart pericardium.

This condition is not common with lung cancer. What Increases Your Risk A risk factor for lung cancer is something that increases your chance of getting this cancer.

Smoking About 85 out of lung cancers are related to cigarette smoking. Your risk of getting lung cancer increases: The longer you smoke. The more cigarettes you smoke each day.

When should you call your doctor? Call or other emergency services immediately if you: Have new or sudden onset of chest pain that is crushing or squeezing, is increasing in intensity, or occurs with any other symptoms of a heart attack , such as shortness of breath and nausea.

A lighted, flexible tube called a bronchoscope is passed through the mouth or nose and into the large airways of the lungs. This test can help the doctor see tumors, or it can be used to take samples of tissue to see if cancer cells are present. Learn more about bronchoscopy. For endobronchial ultrasound, a bronchoscope a thin, lighted, flexible tube is fitted with an ultrasound device a device that uses sound waves to make pictures of the inside of your body at its tip.

It is passed down into the windpipe to look at nearby lymph nodes and other structures in the chest. This is done with numbing medicine local anesthesia and sedation.

A hollow needle can be passed through the bronchoscope and guided by ultrasound into an area of concern to take biopsy samples. Learn more about EBUS. This test is much like an endobronchial ultrasound, except that an endoscope a lighted, flexible tube is used.

It is passed down the throat and into the esophagus and used as a guide to evaluate and sample adjacent lymph nodes. Both of these tests let the surgeon look at and take samples of lymph nodes in the area between the lungs this area is called the mediastinum. This test is done to check whether fluid around the lungs is caused by cancer or by some other medical problem. A needle is placed between the ribs to drain the fluid. The fluid is checked for cancer cells. A small cut is made in the chest.

The surgeon then uses a thin, lighted tube connected to a video camera and screen to look at the space between the lungs and the chest wall.

The surgeon can see small tumors on the lung or lining of the chest wall and can take out pieces of tissue to be looked at under the microscope. Thoracoscopy can also be used as part of the treatment to remove part of a lung in some early-stage lung cancers. Video-assisted thoracic surgery VATS is a new type of surgery that allows surgeons to make very small incisions to view the inside of the chest cavity and potentially remove the cancer.

A sample of mucus you cough up from the lungs called sputum or phlegm is examined under a microscope to see if cancer cells are present. A long, thin fine needle is used to remove a sample of cells from the area that may be cancer. The sample is examined in the lab to see if it contains cancer cells. Under general anesthesia an incision is made in the chest, between the ribs, to obtain a tissue sample or to remove the cancer.

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