Page 24 - Inspire Magazine 2019
P. 24

In recent issues of Inspire,
      we’ve covered aspects of the

      exciting new developments
      in medicines and drugs to help
      lung cancer patients, including
      targeted therapies and
      immunotherapies.

      Now it’s time to turn the
      spotlight on radiotherapy:





      Advances in this type of treatment mean that many         adjuvant radiotherapy.
      patients with lung cancer who previously could not
      have been treated can now expect to receive radical,      Another type of radiotherapy - known as
      even curative, treatment.                                 prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) - is sometimes
                                                                used during the treatment of small cell lung cancer.


                                                                This involves treating the whole brain with a low
      Radiotherapy uses pulses of radiation to destroy          dose of radiation to reduce the chances of lung
      cancer cells and can be delivered in different            cancer cells spreading to the brain.
      ways depending on whether it is being given to
      reduce and potentially cure the lung cancer (this         Patients with small cell lung cancer might receive
      is called radical radiotherapy) or to reduce side         radiotherapy with chemotherapy if their cancer is
      effects and improve quality of life (known as             only in one side of the lung. This treatment, called
      palliative care).                                         concurrent chemoradiotherapy, can also be used to
                                                                try to cure stage 2-3 non small cell lung cancer not
      In addition, it can be given to help prevent the cancer   suitable for surgery.
      from spreading.
                                                                Radical radiotherapy is now delivered in several
      Where radiotherapy is used after surgery to reduce        ways. New treatments are being developed to offer
      the chances of the cancer recurring, it is called         more radiotherapy to the tumour and reduce the

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