Lung Cancer

 

Introduction

Primary Bronchogenic Carcinoma

  1. Epidemiology

  2. Aetiology

  3. Prevention

  4. Screening

  5. Chemoprevention


Pathology

  1. Clinical pathology

  2. WHO classification of histological sub-types


Presentation

  1. Symptoms

  2. Non metastatic para-neoplastic syndromes

  3. Examination


Investigation

  1. Diagnosis

  2. Staging

    1. Procedures

    2. TNM classification and stage groups I, II, III, IV

    3. Small cell staging

  3. Fitness for Radical Therapy


Treatment of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

  1. Best Supportive Care

  2. Surgery

  3. Chemotherapy

  4. Radiotherapy


Special situations

  1. Bronchial obstruction

  2. Massive haemoptysis

  3. SVC obstruction

  4. Dysphagia

  5. Hypercalcaemia

  6. Spinal cord compression

  7. Malignant pleural effusion


Prognosis in NSCLC


Treatment of Small Cell Lung Cancer

  1. Treatment success rates and prognosis


Conclusion

Though primary bronchogenic lung cancer is the major cancer killer in the western world, most tumours occurring in the lung are secondary. Like brain, bone and liver the lung is a common site of metastatic disease and a distal primary should be considered in all patients in whom a tumour is found in the lung.

Bronchogenic lung cancer is a disease of the twentieth century. Almost unknown till this century it is a product partly of the industrial world but, more so, it is due to the development of the modern cigarette - “the ultimate delivery system for nicotine”. In delivering addictive quantities of nicotine, it also delivers a battery of carcinogens. As such, lung cancer is, for the most part, a preventable disease. While some western countries have actually started to reverse the rise in lung cancer, the dumping of cheap cigarettes on markets in the developing world is transferring the epidemic to the third world.