Radiotherapy as adjuvant treatment for lung cancer

Radiotherapy is a means of locally eliminating lung cancer lesions. The combined use of radiotherapy, surgery and chemotherapy can improve the cure rate. Among various types of lung cancer, small cell lung cancer is the most sensitive to radiotherapy, followed by squamous cell carcinoma, and adenocarcinoma and bronchioloalveolar carcinoma are the worst.

The 3-year survival rate of lung cancer treated with radiotherapy alone is only 10%, so radiotherapy is mostly used after surgery. For cases where the tumor or hilar metastatic lesions cannot be completely removed, it is usually started about 1 month after surgery, with a dose of 40-60Gy and a course of about 6 weeks. Preoperative radiotherapy can shrink the cancer, reduce intraoperative bleeding, and increase the resection rate of the cancer. For patients with advanced lung cancer who have obstructive pneumonia, atelectasis, superior vena cava obstruction syndrome, or severe pain caused by bone metastasis, palliative radiotherapy can be performed to relieve symptoms.

Contraindications to radiotherapy: patients with poor general condition or cachexia; patients with severe emphysema who may suffer from respiratory insufficiency after radiotherapy; patients with extensive metastasis throughout the body or to the pleura or lungs; patients with extensive cancer who will suffer from extensive pulmonary fibrosis and insufficiency of pulmonary function after radiotherapy; cancerous cavities or giant tumors, the latter of which will cause cavitation after radiotherapy

Radiation therapy can cause radiation reactions and complications such as fatigue, weiner decline, low fever, suppression of bone marrow hematopoietic function, radiation pneumonitis, pulmonary fibrosis and tumor liquefaction and cavity formation, which should be treated accordingly.