Simultaneous chemoradiotherapy, combined immunotherapy in inoperable stage III lung cancer!

This is an automatically translated article.

Stage III lung cancer is cancer that has spread to nearby tissues or distant lymph nodes in the body. However, a patient's prognosis and survival time depends on many factors, including age, treatments, and overall health. Along with the development of medicine, experts have noticed good effects in cancer treatment, especially concurrent chemoradiotherapy and immunotherapy in inoperable stage III lung cancer? So how effective is the combination of radiation and chemotherapy?

1. Treatment methods in cancer

Radiation therapy and chemotherapy are two common methods of treating lung cancer, as well as other types of cancer.
Radiation therapy is treatment with high-energy ionizing radiation to destroy cancer cells. With the rapid progress of science and technology, advanced technology radiotherapy equipment has been born and is being widely applied, radiation therapy has become one of the main methods for cancer treatment today. . Cancer chemotherapy is one of the systemic cancer treatment measures, which is understood as a method of cancer treatment with cytotoxic drugs. .
The main weapons in cancer treatment are surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In addition, new weapons in cancer treatment, even recently applied, also show very promising results such as targeted therapy or immunotherapy.
The combination of weapons when treating brings many benefits, increasing the ability to control cancer. For example, combining chemotherapy with surgery or radiation has significantly improved outcomes for many types of cancer. Chemotherapy can be given before surgery, helping to reduce tumor volume favorable for surgery, increasing the possibility of conservative treatment, or chemotherapy after surgery to reduce the local recurrence rate as well as reduce the rate of recurrence. distant metastasis after treatment.
Combination of chemotherapy with radiotherapy also produces similar results. Chemotherapy can be performed before radiation therapy, causing tumor response, shrinking the tumor, convenient for subsequent radiation therapy. Or performed concurrently with radiation therapy, which helps to increase the radiation sensitivity of the tumor, and at the same time control the micro-metastasis, reducing the risk of distant metastasis after treatment. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy is contraindicated for adjuvant treatment after surgery for some head and neck cancers, rectal cancer. When combining these two methods, adjuvant treatment after surgery helps to increase local control, reduce recurrence rate and distant metastasis.

2. Simultaneous chemoradiotherapy, combined immunotherapy in stage III lung cancer without surgery

The combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy to thoroughly treat some cancers such as head and neck cancer, esophageal, rectal, and cervical cancer in many situations can help patients with organ-preserving treatment. and its function, avoiding destructive surgery that loses organs and functions.
When combining these two methods, the treatment effect is better, but of course, the treatment toxicity will be more or more severe. It is very important to weigh the benefits of chemo-radiation regimens on disease control with the toxicity of this regimen to patients. The treating doctor will discuss in detail with the patient, to choose the most suitable regimen for each patient, with the diagnosis, with the stage of the disease.
Along with concurrent chemoradiotherapy, immunotherapy or Immunotherapy (biological therapy) is also a treatment that helps protect the body against cancer cells. It uses cells from the body or in a laboratory to improve or restore immune system function. Immunotherapy works to:
Stop or slow the growth of cancer cells
● Prevent cancer cells from spreading to other organs in the body
Improve the immune system help kill cancer cells more effectively
The reason cancer cells can grow in the body is their ability to escape detection by the immune system. Key immunotherapies help mark cancer cells, which in turn can make it easier for the immune system to find and destroy them. Other immunotherapies work to stimulate the immune system to work better against cancer cells.
Thus, by combining many treatment methods, patients with stage III lung cancer without surgery can get many good effects from the above method.

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