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The management of lung cancer

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Abstract

The overall incidence of lung cancer in the western world shows no decline, and in women is becoming inreasingly common. Efforts to improve survival for non-small-cell lung cancers still centre on surgery where improvement in staging has allowed better selection of operable subjects. Radiotherapy and in particular chemotherapy have lesser roles in prolonging survival in non-small-cell tumours. Small-cell lung cancer is regarded as disseminated disease and has considerable sensitivity to cytotoxic agents. The untreated median survival of 2–4 months has been increased to 15–18 months for patients with limited disease during the last few years and an increasing number of patients are cured by chemotherapy. However, the role of additional therapeutic interventions such as irradiation to the primary tumour site and prophylactic cerebral irradiation have less well-defined effects upon survival. Although the treatment of small-cell cancer has shown undoubted benefit, it is unlikely to be improved radically in the future unless currently available drugs are used more aggressively or more effective agents become available.

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  1. Brompton Hospital, Fulham Road, SW3 6HP, London, England

    S. G. Spiro

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Spiro, S.G. The management of lung cancer. Lung 160, 141–155 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02719286

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