Q: What questions do lung cancer patients need to ask their doctors?
A: The following is a series of questions that can be asked to oncology treatment specialists for your reference.
Diagnosis
What methods can help diagnose lung cancer? Is it painful? Xue Peng Bai, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital
How long will it take for me to know the test results?
What type of lung cancer do I have?
Treatment
What treatment plan will I need?
How long will I need to be in the hospital for treatment?
Will it affect my normal activities? If so, how severe will it be?
Side effects
What are the possible side effects of the treatment? How long will it take to recover?
If side effects occur, who will help me with them?
Follow-up visits
How often will I come to the hospital for checkups after treatment?
What kind of tests are needed?
Will I be able to eventually resume my normal life and work?
Q: Is lung cancer contagious?
A: Lung cancer does not have the basic conditions for contagion, therefore, lung cancer is not contagious.
Q: Is lung cancer necessarily hereditary?
A: There is no reliable evidence to prove that lung cancer can be passed on to the next generation through genetic inheritance.
Q: Is kitchen fumes related to the development of lung cancer?
A: When cooking oil is heated above 270℃, it will produce a large amount of foggy condensate, which contains a lot of harmful substances that can lead to chromosome mutation of cells in the body and cause local tissue cancer. Working around such an environment for a long time can easily cause lung cancer.?
Q: What are the common factors that can cause the development of lung cancer?
A: (1) Viral infection factors (2) Tobacco carcinogenic factors (3) Alcohol cancer-causing factors. (4) Environmental carcinogenic factors. (5) Occupational factors: such as asbestos workers lung cancer related (6) Genetic factors: there is increasing evidence that tumors are genetically related.
Q: What is early stage lung cancer?
A: Early stage lung cancer needs to meet the following conditions: (1) The lesion is confined within the bronchial tube wall, without external invasion, without lymph node, chest wall or organ metastasis. (2) The tumor volume is small, the maximum diameter is within 2cm.
Symptoms of early stage lung cancer include: choking cough more frequently than 35 years old for a long period of time, the cause of which cannot be detected in a short period of time; repeatedly unresolved hemoptysis; pneumonia or tuberculosis with symptoms aggravated by the ineffective anti-inflammatory and anti-TB treatment; chronic bronchitis patients with sudden change in the original cough pattern; the appearance of progressive shortness of breath, chest tightness, chest pain with fixed location; long-term smoking history, work exposure to carcinogens such as asbestos, arsenic, asphalt Those who have more exposure to coal tar, etc. and have developed respiratory symptoms.?
Q: What are the treatments for lung cancer?
A: The treatment methods of lung cancer include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, interventional therapy, biological immunotherapy, Chinese medicine, etc.
Q: Introduce the status of traditional Chinese medicine in lung cancer treatment
A: Traditional Chinese medicine can play the role of adjuvant radiotherapy in the treatment of lung cancer, reduce the toxic side effects of radiotherapy and improve the completion rate of radiotherapy; patients cured by surgery and radiotherapy often take traditional Chinese medicine also play the role of preventing recurrence and metastasis; and patients who are not able to undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy at advanced stage can play the role of reducing pain, improving survival quality and prolonging life through traditional Chinese medicine treatment.
Q: What is the first choice of treatment for lung cancer?
A: The preferred treatment for lung cancer is surgery. For patients who are suitable for surgery, surgery should be pursued to remove lung cancer, its metastatic lymph nodes and adjacent invaded tissues. This can achieve three purposes.
(1) Relatively complete removal of all cancerous tissues and clinical cure without distant metastasis.
(2) Removal of the vast majority of cancer tissues, creating favorable conditions for radiotherapy, chemotherapy and biotherapy, and removing residual lesions through these postoperative comprehensive treatment measures, which is conducive to improving the survival period.
(3) Reduce secondary and concurrent symptoms, reduce pain, improve life quality and prolong life expectancy.
Q: Which lung cancer patients are suitable for surgery?
A: (1) Patients with early stage of lung cancer. (2) Patients with high clinical suspicion of lung cancer or those who cannot rule out the possibility of lung cancer.
Q: What kind of lung cancer patients are suitable for chemotherapy?
A: (1) Once small cell lung cancer patients are detected, systemic chemotherapy is preferred, followed by local radiotherapy. (2) Non-small cell lung cancer as adjuvant therapy after surgery and/or radiotherapy; (3) Patients with advanced stage of disease, who are no longer able to undergo surgery or radiotherapy, especially those with distant metastasis; (4) Patients with recurrence and metastasis of the mass after surgery or radiotherapy; (5) Lung cancer combined with superior vena cava compression syndrome, pericardial effusion, pleural effusion, etc.
Q: To which parts of the body is lung cancer likely to metastasize?
A: (1) Brain metastasis. (2) Liver metastasis. (3) Bone metastasis. (4) Superior vena cava syndrome. (5) Cervical sympathetic plexus. (6) Pleural metastasis. (7) Recurrent laryngeal nerve compression.?
Q: How should lung cancer patients take supplements after surgery and chemotherapy?
A: When the body of lung cancer patients gradually recovers health and the whole body immune function and anti-cancer ability are stronger, they can effectively inhibit the growth of cancer cells in turn, and increasing nutrition will not accelerate the growth of tumor cells. As for Chinese medicine, which emphasizes on food identification, the implementation of food therapy should be based on the patient’s specific situation and consult your primary care physician.
Q: Introduce the health prevention of lung cancer
A: (1) Do not smoke, and pay attention to avoid passive smoking.
(2) Enter a diet high in protein, vitamins, fiber, proper fat and calories, and eat more fresh vegetables and fruits.
(3) Do not drink alcohol and do not eat fried, fried, smoked or baked foods.
(4) Do not eat moldy and spoiled food, and do not eat partially or overeat.
(5) Avoid contact with various cancer-causing chemicals and/or pesticides.
(6) Have a regular lifestyle.
(7) Pay attention to personal hygiene and strengthen physical exercise.
(8) Keep your mood relaxed or calm and avoid worrying or overworking.
(9) Pay attention to and pay attention to the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases and precancerous lesions, and prevent them from getting worse. For example, patients with chronic bronchitis should pay attention to the prevention of cold and flu, and should be treated promptly if they have a cold.
(10) Be careful with medication, for example, 5,000 cases of cancer in the United States are caused by improper use of medication every year.