Living With Lung Cancer : The Other Side of the Desk

摘要

Lung cancer from the point of view of the physi-ncians who have to deal with this condition is not,ngenerally, very challenging in terms of diagnosis orntreatment. The patient is or has been a heavy smokernwho may be asymptomatic, but frequently presentsnwith cough and blood spitting. The tumor or itsneffects, atelectasis or pneumonia, are usually evidentnon the chest radiograph. The diagnosis is confirmednwith bronchoscopy and bronchial biopsy or washings,nor in some cases, needle aspiration of nodes or thentumor itself. The choice of treatment requires stag-ning with the aid of such modalities as CT, mediasti-nnoscopy, and radioisotope bone scans. Unfortunatelynafter all these tests, in the majority of cases, thenpatient has to be told that the tumor is inoperablenand the only treatment is radiation or chemotherapy,nwith a poor prognosis.