How to Treat Lung Adenocarcinoma Recurrences

Lung adenocarcinomas are the most common form of lung cancer and have the ability to spread to other tissues. One of the difficulties of treating lung adenocarcinomas is that if the original tumor is not completely destroyed or removed, it can come back. If this happens, the recurrence of the cancer may not respond well to some types of treatment because it presumably survived the first round of treatment. Your oncologist will be able to analyze your recurrence and decide what course of treatment is best, as everyone's case is different.

Instructions

• 1

  Remove part or all of the lung. This type of treatment works well for tumors that are confined to just one lung or a portion of the lung. A lobectomy is a procedure in which one affected lung lobe is removed, and a pneumonectomy involves the removal of the entire lung, which may be indicated if the recurrence is spread throughout several parts of the lung.

• 2

  Receive radiation therapy. Radiation therapy comes in two forms: external and internal radiation therapy. External radiation therapy uses a machine which directs concentrated beams of radiation at your chest, which will preferentially damage cancerous cells. Internal radiation therapy involves the injection of a radioactive liquid, using a needle or a catheter, to an area very near the tumor to attack it.

• 3

  Receive chemotherapy. Chemotherapy works by the administration of drugs that either kill cancer cells or slow the rate at which they divide. Most chemotherapy drugs are given intravenously over the course of many hours. For lung adenocarcinomas, a combination of drugs may be used to maximize the effects of each drug.

• 4

  Receive photodynamic therapy. Photodynamic therapy works by the injection of a drug into the bloodstream. This drug is designed to bind to adenocarcinoma cells and can then be activated by certain kinds of laser light. Once the drug is activated it kills the cancer cells.

• 5

  Receive palliative care. In some cases, recurring lung adenocarcinomas are in an area of the lung where they cannot be removed and do not respond to treatment. For these tumors, the only solution is to try to minimize the symptoms and to wait and see if they respond to radiation or novel combinations of chemotherapy.