Things to Know About Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatments
Lung cancer is considered to be one of the most difficult to diagnose in early stages and challenging to treat as the disease progresses. This form of cancer accounts for nearly 1.9 million deaths a year worldwide, making it the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Traditionally, the prognosis has not been optimistic for patients and most non-small cell lung cancer treatments have focused on surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and other therapies. However, persistent and more sophisticated research worldwide have changed the therapy landscape dramatically, offering a wider and deeper range of options. 1. New approaches Earlier approaches to non-small cell lung cancer treatment (NSCLC) were based on the theory that this was a single disease entity. This meant that most patients diagnosed with this form of cancer received the same line of treatment, usually chemotherapy and/or radiation. However, today you know that there are several different types of NSCLC, with possibly many more yet to be discovered. Each one has its unique biomarkers. Scientists have identified more than 200 individual biomarkers and the focus is on discovering the combinations of these that occur most frequently. What this insight has done to treatment approaches is that doctors have stopped prescribing standardized treatments to all cases and patients are more willing to explore new areas and approaches.