Lung Cancer Chemotherapy
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Video: Chemotherapy
Learn about CTCA's advanced chemotherapy treatment methods to treat many different forms of cancer.Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a common treatment for lung cancer. Listen to Dr. Rudolph Willis, Dr. Petra Ketterl and Dr. Steven Standiford describe how chemotherapy works.
Chemotherapy for Lung Cancer
For most lung cancer patients at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), chemotherapy (chemo) is an important part of treatment. Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells and tumors in the body.
Many of our patients have received prior lung cancer chemotherapy treatments. We constantly think “outside of the box” to try different treatment approaches. One creative way that we’re treating metastatic lung cancer is with chemoembolization, a method of delivering treatment directly to the tumor.
We often combine chemotherapy with other advanced therapies, like Interventional Pulmonology, to help you fight cancer and support your quality of life.
Lung cancer chemotherapy treatments are used in three primary ways:
- Neoadjuvant or primary systemic lung cancer chemotherapy may be used before surgery to destroy cancer cells. It also allows your oncologist to determine the effectiveness of a particular lung cancer treatment regimen on the tumor.
- Adjuvant chemotherapy is used after surgery or radiation to target cancer cells that were not removed during lung cancer surgery, and helps prevent the cancer from spreading to other parts of your body.
- Systemic chemotherapy, meaning the circulation of chemotherapy drugs through the bloodstream to cancer cells through the body, plays an important role in the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic lung cancer.
Throughout your lung cancer treatment, your CTCA care team continually monitors the effectiveness of chemotherapy on the disease, with physical exams, blood tests, CT scans, MRI scans and chest X-rays.
The Infusion Center at CTCA
As a patient at CTCA, you'll receive chemotherapy for lung cancer at our hospital's Infusion Center. Throughout your treatment, our team will work to make you as comfortable as possible:
- When you arrive for your first lung cancer chemotherapy treatment, a nurse will show you around and give you a brief tour of the infusion center.
- Each time you come for an appointment, you choose a seat wherever you would like.
- Semi-private chairs with your own television are always available.
- Rooms are available if you seek more privacy or need to rest during treatment.
- A patient care technician will offer you a heated blanket and get you comfortable, as well as take your order for lunch or dinner. You can order a meal for a companion, too.
In addition, you can choose what you want to do while receiving your chemotherapy lung cancer treatment. You may decide to talk with family or friends, sit in front of the window, read a book, or nap in a private lounge chair.
You can also schedule appointments with acupuncturists and naturopathic clinicians during your time in the infusion center. Our practitioners provide supportive therapies to help you relax before or during chemotherapy treatment and to minimize the side effects of chemotherapy, such as nausea and vomiting.
Next Topic: Tumor Molecular Profiling for Lung Cancer
