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Treatments for lung cancer depends on the specific form, how far it has developed and on other details of the patient (eg. age). Common treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Radiofrequency Ablation is increasing in popularity for this condition as it is non toxic and causes very little pain. It seems especially effective when combined with chemotherapy as it catches the cells inside a tumor - the ones difficult to get with chemo due to a reduced blood supply to the inside of the tumor. It is done by inserting a small heat proble inside the tumor to cook the tumor cells. These are then disposed of by the body through normal eliminative processes.Other treatments include a variety of non patentable techniques often derived from native medical traditions - for instance fish oil. Fish oil prevents and reverses 'cachexia' - cancer weight loss. There are many such treatments listed on http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed where the research never reaches the double blind trial stage because no company spends millions of dollars testing the efficacy of something it cannot patent. A search there on 'tumor' and 'complete response' is enlightening when combined with the chemical names of substances from http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/cancer1/altthrpy.htm
The group most likely to develop lung cancer are the over-fifties who also have a history of smoking. Lung cancer is the second most commonly occurring form of cancer in most western countries, however it is the leading cancer-related cause of death for men and women. It is expected that in 2001 there will be 169,500 new cases of lung cancer; 90,700 in men and 78,000 in women. Although the rate of men dying from lung cancer is declining in western countries, it is actually increasing for women due to the increased take up of smoking in this group.
Prevention plans are the most cost-effective means of fighting lung cancer on national and global scale. While in most countries industrial and domestic carcinogens have been identified and banned, tobacco smoking still is quite widespread. Fighting tobacco smoking should be primary goal for lung cancer prevention.
Because prognosis depends heavily on early detection there have been several
attempts at secondary prevention. Regular chest radiography and sputum examination programs were not effective in early detection of this cancer and
did not resulted in reduction of mortality.
However in September 2003 one study published in Lancet is quite promising.
The study showed that spiral computed tomography and positron emission tomography were effective in detecting early stages of lung cancer in high risk
population of heavy smokers.
Reference: Early lung-cancer detection with spiral CT and positron emission tomography in heavy smokers: 2-year results Lancet 2003; 362: 593-97
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