title: Lung cancer.
abstract: Only patients with localized lung cancer benefit from curative resection. Curative radiotherapy is recommended in patients with a resectable tumor in whom surgery is precluded for medical reasons. Adjuvant preoperative or postoperative therapy of any type does not improve the results of surgery except in patients with Pancoast tumor. Therapy for nonlocalized tumors does not affect survival. Radiotherapy has a palliative effect in 50 to 75 per cent of patients presenting with symptoms from either a primary lesion or metastases and should therefore be recommended in symptomatic patients. The palliative effect of chemotherapy is limited in lung cancers other than small cell carcinomas. However, chemotherapy alone or in association with radiotherapy produces remarkable tumor regression and some improvement of survival in small cell carcinoma. The use of immunotherapy in the treatment of lung cancer is still under evaluation.
mesh_terms: D001999:Bronchoscopy; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000601:surgery; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D008482:Mediastinum / Q000601:surgery; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D010166:Palliative Care; D013183:Sputum / Q000166:cytology; D013903:Thoracic Surgery; D013909:Thorax / Q000601:surgery