What should we expect from lung cancer?

Question

The doctors are pretty sure that me husbands mother has lung cancer,subject to biopsy. What should we expect to happen if she does? How should i support my husband? I'm rubbish in a crisis.

Answer 1

Well the clinical symptoms and prognosis have been listed.

If you want a chat, e-mail me. I deal with this every working day.

Answer 2

I could go into medical detail about the ins and outs of what happens in most cases, but that is of no benefit to you. You don't need a breakdown of the types of cancer from google, you can do that yourself.

When she is told she has cancer, the reaction of all patients i have ever seen is to ask "Can it be taken out?". If it can, the surgery will be major, but undertaken only if she is fit enough. It is an unfortunate fact that lung cancer is often too far advanced for surgical intervention. If she is told it isn't operable, to be blunt, her world will have collapsed. People have heard about lung cancer, and have their own images to go with it. Be there for your husband, not with kid gloves, but just support, to talk if he needs to. Advise him to speak to cancer bacup (UK) or in any country the palliative care nurses (such as the lady on this post) and specialist lung nurses. Go with him, and show your support.

Lung cancer isn't pretty, but you are doing the right thing preparing. If it isn't resectable, chmotherapy and radiotherapy are often given, but again, speak to the people involved in the care, or ask people their experiences of this.

It is worth noting that most on here who have experience of lung cancer will not have positive experience, so don't be downhearted at some of the possible replies.

Answer 3

i will understand your frustration. My husband is a lung maximum cancers affected person. How long you are able to anticipate to stay with lung maximum cancers is puzzling to foretell. lots relies upon on which style of lung maximum cancers (there are 5 varieties) and what point the main cancers is in. If it has already unfold or metastasized, then surgical treatment is regularly no longer an option. with regard to the only element chemo or radiation could do is to gradual the form of the main cancers. the cost of therapy is astronomical - my husband had a chemo cocktail of two diverse chemo drugs. between the medicine value $86,000 in keeping with therapy. You attain a factor the place you are able to desire to think approximately no longer basically the cost yet additionally the favored of life. in many techniques the chemo therapy is almost as undesirable if no longer worse then the main cancers. i've got talked to various people interior the therapy sanatorium who say if their maximum cancers spreads or returns they could end therapy and decide discomfort medicine. If accessible see in the adventure that your dad can help pass with him to his physician and communicate with you and him approximately accessible recommendations and the thank you to make his high quality of life the ideal that's. on occasion once you pay attention the analysis of maximum cancers, your suggestions shuts down and you relatively need somebody else there to take up the records and understand recommendations and selections.

Answer 4

hi my grandad was diagnosed with lung cancer june this year his 79 yrs old and is not doing to bad now he has had his ups and downs when on treatment, what to expect it is a very horrible thing to be told all you can do is try to still treat your mother in law as before but in suttle ways let them both know that you are there for them and listen to them also with the treatment it is depending on what type of cancer it is growing in the lung as there is to forms one is of a small cell growing tumour but this is the one that is not curable all the treatment will do is shrink for a time all of you MUST stay positive at all times and live every day to the best with each other laugh a lot and try to be healthy with eating and keeping her strength up as the treatment is tough for all of you involved most of all your mother in law there may be times that she will have too go in to hospital but she is in good hands and really ask as many questions as possible to the doctors. all the best and i hope this has helped a bit for you all.

Answer 5

Well, first you have to pretend that you are not a rubbish this time. I don't think you are because you are asking us how to prepare. No one is really prepared for this thing. you know. The best support is "agree" with what he and his mom have decided to do. You can help them find a good doctor and put your trust in his or her hands. Things will be just fine.

Answer 6

i guess it depends on what stage of cancer she has. but with lung cancer it usually is in late stages of cancer by the time of diagnosis. my friends dad had lung cancer . he was diagnosed in june 2005, by july it had spread to his brain and he acted like a child. he would throw fits and ask for cookies. he passed away in aug 2005. but everyone is different tho. i would just be there for him and let him vent when he needs to ...

Answer 7

You really need to ask your mother-in-laws doctor about this, he/she will give you all the support you need at a time like this, it is expert advice you need, if you don't want to talk to her GP then give the McMillan nurses a ring they will be able to help.

Answer 8

There is very little good news as far as lung cancers are concerned, and very little chance that they ever will be.

The prognosis of lung cancer depends upon the localization and size of the tumor, the presence of symptoms, the type of lung cancer, and the overall health status of the patient.

Small cell or "oat cell" lung cancer has the most aggressive growth of all lung cancers, with a median survival time of only 2-4 months after diagnosis when untreated. (That is, by 2-4 months, half of all patients have died.) It is almost always the result of smoking. Small cell lung cancer is fairly responsive to radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Because small cell lung cancer spreads rapidly and is usually disseminated at the time of diagnosis, methods such as surgical removal or localized radiation therapy are less effective in treating this tumor type. However, when chemotherapy is used alone or in combination with other methods, survival time can be prolonged four- to fivefold. However, of all patients with small cell lung cancer, only 5-10% are alive 5 years after diagnosis. Most of those who survive have what is known as limited stage small cell lung cancer, but such cancers are uncommon.

There are four times of small cell cancers : Squamous cell cancer, which is the most common type of lung cancer. It develops from the cells that line the airways and you often find it near the centre of the lung in one of the main airways (the left or right bronchus). This type of cancer is nearly always due to smoking. Prognosis is extremely poor - 8 to 10% median survivla rate five years after diagnosis.

Adenocarcinoma develops from the cells that line the airways, but it develops from a particular type of cell that produces mucus . You often find it in the outer regions of the lungs. The incidence of adenocarcinoma is increasing and it may soon become more common in the UK than squamous cell lung cancer. Prognosis is little better than squamous cell cancer.

Large cell carcinoma, so called this because the cells look large and rounded when they are looked at under a microscope. This type of lung cancer tends to grow quite quickly, and the outlook is no better 10% median servival.

Secondary lung cancer - cancer that has spread to the lungs from another site in the body. There are quite a few different cancers that can spread to the lungs, including breast cancer and bowel cancer.

In non-small cell lung cancer results of standard treatment are generally poor in all but the most localized cancers that can be surgically removed. Radiation therapy can produce a cure in a small minority of patients with non small cell lung cancer and relief of symptoms in most patients. In advanced-stage disease, chemotherapy offers modest improvements in survival time, although overall survival rates are poor.

Survival rates for lung cancer are generally much lower than those for most cancers, with an overall 5-year survival rate for lung cancer of about 15%, compared to 63% for colon cancer, 88% for breast cancer, and 99% for prostate cancer.

So, I am afraid you have a fairly bleak outlook, whichever way you look at it.

Answer 9

Many have survived lung cancer with proper medical treatment .
Keep your faith in GOD with him all things are possible.
I will say a prawer for her speedy recovery.
Merry xmas to all.