Metastatic lung cancer

Lung cancer can be caused by a tumor that develops primary in the lungs and then can spread to other organs, or by a tumor that develops first in different parts of the body and then gives metastases in the lungs.

Metastatic lung cancer is more often given by a tumor that has initiated its development in the colon, the breasts, the prostate or the bladder. The most common way for a tumor to spread from one organ to another is by using the blood steam as a road that leads directly to the interested organ.

Metastatic lung cancer can be as hard to treat as primary lung cancer is. Treatment must be considered for all the organs affected by the cancer, not only for the lungs, and this makes things quite difficult for doctors. In some cases after managing to remove the primary tumor, removing the metastases from the lungs can easily be done by surgical techniques, but this is possible only if the metastatic tumor is relatively localized. But if the metastases are spread all over the body then surgery is inefficient and needs to be correlated with chemotherapy. Sometimes chemotherapy is the only treatment option for doctors.

Chemotherapy can use a single drug or a multiple drug combination. Side effects are not ignorable as they can affect drastically a weakened body and not every person can bare the chemotherapy treatment. The good news is that in time the body will regenerate the healthy cells that have been destroyed by chemotherapy and the side effects will diminish step by step.

Fighting against metastatic lung cancer is difficult and challenging as the main target is the source of malignant cells and only then the second base of the disease. Unfortunately cure is unlikely in a lot of cases. The cases with a high chance of survival are those in which the treatment has resolved the primary cancer and the surgery has managed to remove the metastatic tumor from the lungs.

Complications of metastatic lung cancer can frequently occur. They are: the side effects of chemotherapy, pleural and pericardial effusions that will cause shortness of breath, and further spreading of the cancer.

Metastatic lung cancer is a real threat to humanity as well as primary lung cancer. No one wants to suffer of such a terrible disease and this is why adopting a healthy lifestyle is a must and prevention methods have to be considered.