What are the treatment options for lung cancer?

  Lung cancer is the most common primary malignant tumor of the lung. Most lung cancers originate from the bronchial mucosa epithelium, so it is also called bronchopulmonary cancer. Clinically, the principle of comprehensive treatment should be adopted, that is, according to the patient’s physical condition, cytology and pathological type of tumor, invasion scope (disease stage) and development trend, the existing treatments should be applied in a planned and reasonable manner, so as to eradicate and control the tumor to the greatest extent, increase the cure rate and improve the patient’s life quality. For patients who are to be treated with radiotherapy or chemotherapy, Karnofsky or ECOG score should be done. At present, the treatment of lung cancer is still mainly based on surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Vascular interventional treatment for lung cancer is also an important part of comprehensive treatment.  Endovascular interventions for lung cancer include transcatheter arterial chemoperfusion and transcatheter arterial embolization, both of which are minimally invasive procedures.  The general method is to insert a catheter after percutaneous arterial puncture under local anesthesia, find the tumor blood supply vessels and then perfuse chemotherapeutic drugs through the catheter, followed by embolization with embolic agents to block the tumor blood supply. In this way, the local lung cancer tumor tissues receive high concentration of chemotherapeutic drugs to increase the anti-tumor effect and reduce the side effects of systemic drugs.  Indications: (1) middle and late stage lung cancer who have lost surgical treatment; (2) lung cancer who cannot tolerate surgical operation; (3) lung cancer with difficulty in surgical operation, preoperative intervention to reduce the difficulty of operation and improve the efficacy of surgical treatment after short-term tumor reduction (equivalent to neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgical operation); (4) lung cancer with hemoptysis, perfusion + embolization is feasible to achieve both anti-tumor and hemostasis. (5) Patients who cannot tolerate systemic intravenous chemotherapy, especially elderly patients with lung cancer; (6) For patients who can tolerate systemic intravenous chemotherapy dose, endovascular interventional chemotherapy + supplemental intravenous chemotherapy is feasible to increase local treatment effect and ensure systemic dose; (7) Central lung cancer, peripheral lung cancer with rich arterial blood supply and huge lung cancer have better efficacy.  Endovascular interventional therapy for lung cancer has the advantages of minimally invasive, low side effects and strong recent efficacy, but it cannot replace other methods of comprehensive treatment; therefore, patients with lung cancer who cannot undergo surgery need to arrange their treatment in a reasonable way.