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Cancer Information Tips :: Lung Cancer Side Effects
Lung Cancer Side Effects: The Side Effects of Treating Lung Cancer
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Lung cancer side effects and symptoms tend to revolve around chest pain, coughing and hoarseness.
Of course shortness of breath, wheezing, chest pain and coughing up blood can be caused by other respiratory infections, too, so it is always important to have a doctor check out any breathing abnormalities.
Sometimes symptoms don't make themselves known very quickly, and cancer won't be evident until a chest x-ray is performed. As cancer metastasizes, other lung cancer side effects from tumors elsewhere in the body may develop.
Treatment of lung cancer depends on whether it is small cell lung cancer or non-small cell lung cancer.
Small Cell Lung Cancer
There are two main types of small cell lung cancer. They are small cell carcinoma and combined small cell carcinoma.
About one quarter of lung cancer cases are small cell lung cancer. While this type of cancer responds well to radiation and chemotherapy, it also spreads and grows very rapidly.
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Squamous cell carcinoma, large cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma are the three major branches of non-small cell lung cancer.
Pleomorphic, carcinoid tumor, salivary gland carcinoma, and unclassified carcinoma are all less common strains of non-small cell lung cancer.
Chemotherapy & Radiation
Commonly used to treat all forms of cancer, chemotherapy and radiation side effects are well known to many. Chemotherapy causes hair loss, fatigue, nausea and vomiting.
Radiation shares those side effects, but also causes a sore throat, difficulty swallowing, loss of appetite and changes in the skin where radiation therapy takes place.
Surgery
Depending on the size and location of a tumor, lung cancer surgery may be a lobectomy, which removes one lobe of a lung, a bi-lobectomy, which would remove two lobes, a pneumonectomy, which removes one entire lung, or a wedge resection in which only one small portion of a lung is removed.
The recovery from lung cancer surgery can be very long and drawn out. After surgery for lung cancer, side effects like air and fluid collecting in the chest can be slightly eased by turning over, breathing deeply and coughing. It is important to keep blood circulating.
Other side effects might include chest and arm pain or soreness, along with shortness of breath. To alleviate these side effects, a doctor can prescribe pain killers.
If the discomfort from your lung cancer side effects cause you any alarm, always arrange a checkup with your doctor.
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CancerInfoTips.com :: Lung Cancer Side Effects