While the statistics on the life expectancy of stage 4 lung cancer are quite low, there are so many people that are long-term survivors of stage 4 lung cancer. HOPE Summit held in Washington in 2016 is truly a wonderful group of survivors of lung cancers which anybody can be a part of. The organization convincingly affirmed that not only a group of more than 300 lung cancer survivors that are thriving with lung cancer survivors that are thriving with lung cancer yet a double digit number group of patients that have survived stage 4 disease for a minimum of ten years. Bear in mind that you are not a statistic. There is hope, and it is a real one.
How to Manage Lung Cancer which Has Spread (Stage 4)
One last thing is so important to bear in mind. While the stage 4 lung cancer is not commonly curable, it is indeed treatable. These particular treatments may not only improve the overall survival yet help with the symptom of lung cancer, too. For some people, the recent approval of two immunotherapy drugs in 2015 and other medications that are included in this category evaluated within clinical trial contextsuggests that for some individuals, long-term treatment on the disease for some people diagnosed with the advanced lung cancer may be doable. For those with targeted mutations, changing to newly developed drugs when tumors get resistant recommends that some people, advanced lung cancer may well be treated as a sort of chronic disease, such as diabetes, in their future.
Another latest advance for lung cancer which has spread is the treatment of oligometastases. When one single- or just a few- metastases are found, for instance, in the brain or the liver, techniques such as stereotactic body radiotherapy may be operative to eliminate the metastases. This particular technique has even led to long-term survival for some patients with brain metastases from lung cancer.
What You can Do to Improve Your Survival
After so many years of insignificant progress in the treatment of lung cancer, the options for treating and personalizing lung cancers care have exponentially increased. What this means is that it is hard for just anybody- even an oncologist that specializes in cancer- to get aware of every new improvement and clinical trial which is being conducted around the world.
Studies have suggested that those who learn as much about the cancer and become their own advocate when dealing with the cancer care may have higher life expectancy. Learning how to research your own cancer online can be a powerful treatment. A perfect way to not only get support but also to find out about the new advances in treatments is to get involved in lung cancer support group or support community. The special hashtag for these groups is #LCSM that stands for lung cancer social media. Additionally a number of the lung cancer communities have taken part together to provide a free clinical trial matching service for those who live with lung cancer.
