Which lung cancer patients need chemotherapy? There are five categories

Chemotherapy is a common method for treating lung cancer, but not every type of lung cancer can be treated with chemotherapy. Symptomatic treatment is required. Patients with early-stage lung cancer, locally advanced lung cancer, lymph node metastasis after radical surgery, small cell lung cancer, advanced lung cancer, etc. should all receive chemotherapy in a timely manner, and patients should cooperate well.

Lung cancer is a type of cancer with a relatively high incidence and mortality rate in the medical field. Of course, there are many treatment methods, including drug therapy, surgical treatment, traditional Chinese medicine treatment, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, etc. Chemotherapy is a test that many patients need to undergo, so which lung cancer patients need chemotherapy?
1. Early stage lung cancer <br/>For lung cancer patients, chemotherapy is a relatively common treatment method, but it is also applicable and requires symptomatic treatment. Generally speaking, early stage lung cancer can be treated with chemotherapy. In such cases, the tumor of the patient is less than 3cm and there is no lymph node metastasis. Generally, surgical treatment is the first choice. If surgery is not possible for various reasons, stereotactic radiotherapy can also achieve similar results.
2. Locally advanced lung cancer <br/>Locally advanced lung cancer patients belong to clinical stage III patients. They are characterized by large tumor volume, mediastinal lymph node metastasis, and no distant metastasis. The best treatment for this type of patients is concurrent radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which is better than sequential treatment of chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy.
3. Lymph node metastasis is found after radical surgery <br/> Radical surgery can remove the primary tumor and metastatic lymph nodes, but it is often difficult to completely remove them, and residual lesions become the source of recurrence. The recurrence rate of patients with lymph node metastasis or positive margins after radical surgery can reach 60%. Postoperative radiotherapy can reduce the recurrence rate to 20% to 30%, significantly improving the survival rate.
4. Small cell lung cancer <br/>Small cell lung cancer can also be treated with chemotherapy because the disease is a highly malignant tumor with a poor prognosis. Radiotherapy has a potential role at all stages of the disease as part of radical or palliative treatment. Locally limited small cell lung cancer combined with chemotherapy can achieve complete remission. In the extensive stage of small cell lung cancer, systemic chemotherapy plus radiotherapy is recognized as the main comprehensive treatment method. Radiotherapy is the most effective method for treating huge compressive masses in the lungs, intracranial metastases, and chest wall metastases.
5. Advanced lung cancer <br/>The treatment of advanced lung cancer is generally based on systemic therapy, and the survival period is about 10 months. Currently, the median survival period of radiotherapy has reached more than 33 months. Especially for large tumors, bone metastasis and brain metastasis, chemotherapy is the most effective method.