Is there a cure for advanced lung cancer?

First, the late symptoms of lung cancer.

The symptoms in the late stage of lung cancer will be different due to the different constitutions of patients. In the late stage of lung cancer, the condition is more serious, and it needs timely symptomatic treatment.

Symptoms of locally advanced lung cancer: The chest cavity is a very complicated space, and three quarters of the lung surface is surrounded by the chest wall, which is composed of a thin layer of intima (parietal pleura), fat, muscle, ribs and skin in different proportions. Tumors invading any of the above parts will cause pain. Therefore, most lung cancer patients with regional spread in the chest have symptoms of chest pain.

Hoarseness is the most common symptom in patients with advanced lung cancer. The recurrent laryngeal nerve, which controls the left pronunciation function, goes down from the neck to the chest, bypasses the great vessels of the heart and goes up to the throat, thus dominating the left side of the pronunciation organ. Therefore, if the tumor invades the left mediastinum and compresses the recurrent laryngeal nerve, there will be hoarseness, but there will be no symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection such as sore throat.

2. Shortness of breath and pleural effusion. Almost all patients with locally disseminated advanced lung cancer have varying degrees of shortness of breath. Normal tissue fluid produced by lung and myocardium is refluxed from lymph nodes in the middle of chest. If these lymph nodes are blocked by tumors, these tissue fluids will accumulate in the pericardium to form pericardial effusion or accumulate in the chest cavity to form pleural effusion. Both of the above conditions will lead to shortness of breath.

3, facial and neck edema. There is superior vena cava on the right side of mediastinum, which transports venous blood of upper limbs and head and neck back to the heart. If the tumor invades the right mediastinum and compresses the superior vena cava, it will initially make the jugular vein swell due to poor reflux, and finally lead to edema of the face and neck, which needs timely diagnosis and treatment.

Metastasis of different organs can occur in the late stage of lung cancer, which can cause corresponding symptoms and often bring great pain and even life-threatening to patients.

(1) Bone metastasis: About 50% of lung cancer patients will eventually have multiple bone metastases. Bone metastasis is generally asymptomatic in the early stage, and bone isotope scanning can find diseased bone. The symptoms of bone metastasis are related to the location and quantity of tumor metastasis, such as chest pain caused by rib metastasis of lung cancer, which is mostly manifested as localized pain in chest wall with clear tenderness points.

(2) Liver metastasis: The liver is also a common metastatic site of lung cancer, and about 28-33% of lung cancer has liver metastasis. Liver metastasis is that the cancer cells of primary lung cancer invade the liver through blood circulation and grow in the liver. Liver metastasis can be single or multiple nodular metastasis. The most common symptom is pain in the liver area, which is persistent swelling pain, and may be accompanied by loss of appetite, indigestion and other manifestations of impaired liver function.

(3) Brain metastasis: Patients with lung cancer have headache, vomiting, visual impairment and changes in personality and temper, which may be caused by intracranial hypertension or brain nerve injury caused by lung cancer metastasis to the brain. Common in small cell lung cancer and adenocarcinoma.

(4) Metastasis in other parts: Except the above-mentioned common metastatic parts, lung cancer rarely metastasizes in skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle, abdominal cavity, heart and other parts, and symptoms are often related to the metastatic parts. If it is transferred to the heart, there will be chest tightness, palpitation and even shortness of breath, syncope, arrhythmia and other symptoms.

Second, the advanced treatment of lung cancer

The appearance of the above symptoms will seriously affect the quality of life of patients with lung cancer, especially those with advanced lung cancer. Physical pain and psychological torture will weaken people's will and lose confidence in overcoming the disease. Relieving symptoms as early as possible can not only improve the patient's physical condition, but also make the patient full of confidence in overcoming the disease and actively cooperate with the treatment, thus producing a good therapeutic effect. But at present, patients have to endure chest pain, nausea, vomiting, hair loss, fatigue and other toxic side effects such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

(1) Surgical treatment of lung cancer: Many family members or patients have misunderstandings about the treatment of advanced lung cancer and think that surgery is necessary anyway. If we can't operate, the patient will soon fail. In fact, the result is often the opposite. Although surgery can remove lung lesions, because of the poor health and low immunity of patients with advanced lung cancer, surgery often hurts their vitality and their quality of life drops sharply. If you don't cooperate with systemic therapy, it often doesn't last long, leading to tumor recurrence or metastasis, especially small cell lung cancer.

(2) Chemotherapy of lung cancer: Small-cell lung cancer develops rapidly, with a prominent trend of systemic spread, and is highly sensitive to chemotherapy. The 5-year survival rate has increased from 65,438+0% to over 65,438+00%, so chemotherapy has become the main treatment for small cell lung cancer. However, in patients with advanced lung cancer, the cycle of chemotherapy should generally not exceed 4 ~ 6 cycles. However, many people want to improve the curative effect through high-dose chemotherapy, but it is counterproductive. Excessive radical treatment not only does not prolong the survival period, but reduces the quality of life of patients, aggravating the symptoms and pain of patients with advanced lung cancer.

(3) Radiotherapy: Radiotherapy can alleviate the symptoms of 70% patients with advanced lung cancer, and external radiotherapy with different doses and different fractions can alleviate the local symptoms of primary or metastatic lesions. However, patients with advanced lung cancer often die in a hurry because of the strong side effects and complications of radiotherapy. While suffering from cancer, we have to endure the side effects of radiotherapy, such as chest pain, nausea, vomiting, hair loss, fatigue and so on, and our quality of life is extremely poor.

Three principles of cancer diet therapy

Using diet to prevent and treat diseases has a long history in China. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, China had a "food doctor". Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty, said: "As a doctor, you should know the source of the disease, know what the disease is, treat it with food, and then order medicine." Explain the importance of diet therapy. Patients with lung cancer should grasp the following three basic principles when using diet therapy.

First, emphasize nutrition balance, and pay attention to strengthening the body resistance and tonifying deficiency.

The "internal deficiency" of lung cancer patients is the main contradiction in the process of disease occurrence and development. Cancer is due to deficiency, deficiency is due to cancer, deficiency is combined with reality, and deficiency is the foundation. The purpose of dietotherapy is to ensure that lung cancer patients have enough nutritional supplements, improve the body's disease resistance and promote the rehabilitation of patients. The general principle should be to strengthen the healthy energy and make up the deficiency. Therefore, Neijing said: "The whole grain, meat, vegetables, food and nutrition are also harmful to it." Under the guidance of the general principle of strengthening vital energy and tonifying deficiency, the diet treatment of lung cancer patients should be nutritious, diversified and balanced. As Neijing said: "Five grains are for nourishment, five fruits are for help, five livestock are for benefit, and five vegetables are for supplement." If you are biased, it will be harmful.

Second, be familiar with the attribution of sexual taste and emphasize dialectical feeding.

Lung cancer, like other diseases, is divided into yin and yang, cold and heat deficiency and excess. Food also has four flavors: cold, hot, cold, bitter, sour and salty. Heat syndrome should be cold and cool, and cold syndrome should be warm; The five flavors have their own paths, sweet into the spleen, pungent into the lungs, salty into the kidney, bitter into the heart and sour into the liver. Xin Wen powder, such as ginger and scallion; Sweet and mild, such as yam, Euryale ferox, caramel; Light and transparent, such as white gourd and coix seed; Sour, such as ebony and hawthorn; Salty and soft, such as laver, kelp, oyster, etc.

Third, choose anti-cancer foods and strive to be targeted.

Medicine and food are homologous, and some foods have both dietotherapy and anticancer effects, so they can be selected and applied in a targeted way. For example, foods in daily life, such as garlic, bean products and green tea, are all good anticancer drugs. Some recent studies show that many foods are beneficial to the prevention and treatment of lung cancer. For example, goose blood can improve the symptoms of lung cancer and increase white blood cells, and has been developed into tablets; Coix lachryma-jobi contains coix lachryma-jobi fat, which has obvious inhibitory effect on cancer cells. Mung beans combined with licorice and chemotherapy drugs can cool and detoxify and reduce side effects.