Lung cancer brain metastasis in advanced stage is usually inoperable and usually requires radiation therapy, chemotherapy and other treatments. Surgery is only suitable for some patients with early, middle and late stage lung cancer.
1. Radiotherapy: this treatment can be divided into radical radiotherapy, palliative radiotherapy, adjuvant radiotherapy, prophylactic radiotherapy, etc. For patients with advanced lung cancer with brain metastasis, palliative radiotherapy should be adopted.
2. Chemotherapy: commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs include irinotecan, cisplatin, carboplatin, etoposide, etc., which are mainly taken orally or dripped intravenously to kill cancer cells in the body, and then achieve the purpose of treatment.
3. Other treatments: these include interventional therapy and immunotherapy, etc. Interventional therapy mainly utilizes puncture needles, catheters, guide wires and other equipments to carry out treatment. Immunotherapy is the application of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors such as pembrolizumab and nabumab. Meanwhile, symptomatic treatment such as dehydration, pain relief and nutritional support can be given according to the situation.
Usually, surgical treatment of lung cancer means suitable for all early and middle stage lung cancers, as well as a few middle and late stage non-small cell lung cancers, and the general 5-year survival rate after surgery is 30%~44%.
To sum up, brain metastasis of lung cancer in advanced stage needs to cooperate with doctors to take appropriate treatment plan and strengthen daily life management.