The exact cause of each type of lung cancer is not known. But common causes are active or passive smoking, exposure to certain chemicals like asbestos and radon gas, inherited or acquired gene mutations, personal or family history of lung cancer, and air pollution.

The stage of lung cancer indicates how far the lung cancer has spread. Staging is a crucial step in creating an optimal treatment plan. The staging process for SCLC and NSCLC is different.

Staging of Small Cell Lung Cancer

Using the TNM system, SCLC can be staged into two types i.e., limited-stage and extensive-stage. In the TNM system ‘T’ indicates tumour size, ‘N’ indicates lymph nodes and ‘M’ indicates metastasis. This TNM system completely describes tumour size, and whether it has spread to lymph nodes, or metastasized to other body parts.

Limited stage SCLC: This stage denotes that cancer has affected only one lung, and sometimes lymph nodes, and has not yet spread into other lung and body parts.

Extensive stage SCLC: This stage denotes that cancer has also affected the other lung, chest, and lung fluids and may have spread to other body parts such as the brain and bones.

Staging of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

NSCLC is more common than SCLC. It can be staged into stages I to IV using the TNM system.

Stage 1 – cancer has affected only the lungs but not the lymph nodes
Stage 2 – cancer has spread to lymph nodes close to the lungs
Stage 3 – cancer has spread to distant lymph nodes and may also affect the chest
Stage 4 – cancer has spread to other parts of the body, mainly to the brain, bones, or liver

Depending on the type and stage of lung cancer, and the patient’s health condition, treatment will be selected. For extensive-stage SCLC, chemotherapy is the best option and for limited-stage SCLC, radiation therapy and rarely surgery are the options. But NSCLC can be treated with any type of treatment including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy.

If your cancer is in early-stage, then lung cancer treatments can cure your cancer and prevent it from coming back. Also, there are chances of increasing the life expectancy of patients of all ages. If your cancer is in late-stage, these treatments can treat cancer but not completely cure it. However, it can help you maintain your quality of life and prolong your life to some extent.

Risk factors of lung cancer include active smoking or secondhand smoking, personal or family history of lung cancer, a person’s age, exposure to chemicals like asbestos, radon gas, uranium, arsenic, etc, previous treatment with radiotherapy to the chest, and air pollution. All of these factors can put you at risk of developing lung cancer. So, we advise you to get your lungs screened annually if you have any of these risk factors in your life.

Lung cancer surgery can cause shortness of breath and make it difficult to do any physical activity but it is reversible after rest. Even if one lung is removed, no need to worry. The other lung can perform its activities and you can feel better over time. Inform your doctor if you find it very difficult to breathe, he will do some tests to know the exact cause and provide the necessary treatment. Your doctor may recommend pulmonary rehabilitation, which includes exercises to build strength in respiratory muscles and breathing exercises to help you manage breathing problems.

Chemotherapy is effective for any type and stage of lung cancer. The success rate of chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy is higher in treating lung cancer than chemotherapy alone. If your health is good enough to tolerate chemo, then you’ll be cured of lung cancer.

Unfortunately, there are no treatments available today to cure stage – IV lung cancer. But certain treatments can help patients to get relief from cancer symptoms, improve quality of life and also increase life span to some extent.

The recovery rate will be higher if lung cancer is detected at early stages. Because cancer is only in one lung and has not yet spread. So, patients can be completely cured and recover from lung cancer. Almost 56% of lung cancers are detected at late stages where cancer has already spread to distant organs and is difficult to cure. But some treatments can help you live longer.

Yes, cancer cells grow faster during night sleep. Recent research said that our body produces a hormone during the day that can suppress cancer growth. So, night is the right time for cancer to grow aggressively. Also, at night, tumour cells actively circulate through the blood and divide and metastasize. But our body’s protective mechanism hinders cancer from developing. So, most cancers take years to metastasize. But as we age, this protective mechanism weakens, or in cases where our health is not good, cancer can grow quickly.

You can book an appointment with our doctors through our website Onco cancer centres, Hyderabad. You can also contact us at 8008575405, we will connect you with the right lung cancer specialist.