Almost before you have had time to take in what the doctors have told you, you will be offered a range of tests and treatments that aim to get rid of your cancer or relieve your symptoms, or both. The treatment you get will depend on the type of lung cancer you have, how large it is, and whether it has spread. A lot will also depend on how you feel about your illness and how you would like it to be treated.

We hope our information will answer your questions about lung cancer. And it may help you to talk with your doctor about the best treatments for you.

Some people want to know more about their cancer than others. Some will choose to have treatments that may help them live longer but which could have unpleasant, sometimes harmful, side effects. Other people prefer to enjoy as much of life as they can.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Montazeri A, Gillis CR, McEwen J.
Quality of life in patients with lung cancer: a review of literature from 1970 to 1995.
Chest. 1998; 113: 467-481.

 

 

 

 

 

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There's no right or wrong way for you to deal with your cancer. The most important thing is for you to feel comfortable with the decisions you make. It's also essential that your medical team and those who care about you listen to what you say and respect your wishes.

You have two lungs. They sit in your chest, inside your rib cage, one on each side of your heart. They are covered by a layer of moist tissue called the pleura.

Your lungs are a little like two spongy, elastic bags that fill up with air as you breathe in. They empty as you breathe out. The right lung is divided into three sections. These sections are called lobes. The left lung has two sections (or lobes).

Keeping your lungs healthy is important. They take oxygen from the air you breathe, which your blood then carries around your body. When you breathe out, they get rid of carbon dioxide, which is a waste product made by your body.

Here's how air travels into your lungs.

Your windpipe (trachea) is the air passage that leads from your throat into your chest. In your chest, your windpipe divides into two smaller airways (called bronchi). Each airway leads into a lung.

Inside your lungs, the airways divide into even smaller airways (called bronchioles). At the end of each of these smaller airways are little air sacs (called alveoli).

When you breathe in, air travels down your windpipe, through the airways, into your lungs and then into the smaller airways and the air sacs.

The air sacs in your lungs are connected to the network of blood vessels that surrounds your lungs. Oxygen from the air you breathe in passes through the thin walls of the air sacs and into these blood vessels. Then, the oxygen is carried back to your heart and pumped around your body. At the same time, carbon dioxide (which is made as a by-product of breathing) passes from your blood into the air sacs. The carbon dioxide leaves your body when you breathe out.

Also inside your chest, lying between your lungs, are:

When your body's cells are healthy, they divide, grow old, then die and are replaced in an orderly way. But when you get cancer, your cells grow and multiply too quickly.

This means your cells don't have time to develop into normal, healthy cells. They may be the wrong shape and may not work properly. And they tend to lie on top of one another instead of in neat rows. Lung cancer can start almost anywhere in your lungs, but it usually starts in your airways. Abnormal cells tend to group together and form a lump, which is called a tumor. This slowly gets bigger.

Nearly all types of lung cancer can spread to other parts of your body and form more tumors. These are called secondary tumors. You may hear doctors talk about metastasis. This is the word doctors use to describe the way cancer spreads.

To find out more, see How lung cancer spreads.

Doctors divide lung cancer into two kinds. This is based on what the cancer cells look like when samples of cells from a lung are examined in the laboratory.

The two kinds of lung cancer are:

Some things increase your chance of getting lung cancer. Doctors call these things risk factors. Having a risk factor doesn't mean you'll definitely get lung cancer. It just means you're more likely to get it than someone who doesn't have the risk factor.

The main risk factor for lung cancer is smoking. But sometimes people who have never smoked get lung cancer. To learn more, see Risk factors for lung cancer.

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