Lung cancer is a cancer that seriously threatens human life. The incidence and mortality of lung cancer are relatively high. Chemotherapy is a method of treating cancer. It uses chemicals to destroy cancer cells. However, chemotherapy has some side effects that patients need to bear. So is chemotherapy effective for patients with advanced lung cancer? What is the difference between chemotherapy and no chemotherapy for advanced lung cancer?

1. What is chemotherapy

Before comparing chemotherapy or not, we must first understand what chemotherapy is. Chemotherapy refers to injecting chemical drugs that can inhibit and kill tumor cells into the human body through various methods (such as oral administration, intravenous injection, etc.) to achieve therapeutic effects.

2. The effect of chemotherapy in late-stage lung cancer

For patients with advanced lung cancer, chemotherapy can have a certain effect to a certain extent. It can reduce the number of cancer cells and reduce the number of cancer cells in a certain period of time. Internally control the development of cancer cells. Its main performance is to relieve the symptoms of late-stage lung cancer patients, reduce the patient's pain, and prolong the patient's survival time.

3. The consequences of not receiving chemotherapy in the late stage of lung cancer

For patients with advanced lung cancer, the lung cancer cells have begun to metastasize. If they are not treated with chemotherapy, the metastasized cancer cells will grow rapidly, and the patient’s Various late symptoms (such as hoarseness, shortness of breath, pleural effusion, facial and neck edema) will progressively worsen and ultimately shorten the patient's survival time.

4. The difference between the effects of chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is one of the main treatments for lung cancer. It uses the toxicity of chemical drugs to directly kill cancer cells. The difference between the effects of chemotherapy and no chemotherapy for patients with advanced lung cancer is:

Ventilation chemotherapy for lung cancer can kill cancer cells in the patient's body, relieve the pain of patients with advanced lung cancer, and prolong the patient's survival time, but it will also It will bring certain side effects to patients (for example: nausea, vomiting);

If other treatment methods are used instead of chemotherapy in the late stage of lung cancer, the killing effect of cancer cells may not be very satisfactory, and the patient's cancer cells will grow. The speed will be relatively fast, the patient's pain will be relatively severe, and the survival time will be relatively shortened.

5. Under what circumstances cannot chemotherapy be used?

Although chemotherapy has a certain effect on some patients with advanced lung cancer, if the patient's physical condition is extremely poor and cachexia occurs (cachexia refers to the body's Significant weight loss, anemia, mental decline and other symptoms of systemic failure), chemotherapy can no longer be used. At this time, the patient's body function is not strong enough to resist the side effects of chemotherapy. If chemotherapy is used forcibly, the patient may die prematurely.

6. Side effects of chemotherapy

1. Local necrosis

Some chemotherapy drugs require intravenous injection. If left under the skin or puncture blood vessels, local necrosis may occur. Inflammation leads to local tissue necrosis.

2. Suppression of bone marrow

Many chemotherapy drugs have obvious bone marrow suppression effects. For example, it can cause a decrease in white blood cells and platelets, inhibit the hematopoietic function of the bone marrow, and lead to adverse reactions such as bleeding and anemia.

3. Mucosal damage

Mucosal damage caused by chemotherapy mainly manifests as digestive tract symptoms such as loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomatitis, esophagitis, etc., accounting for approximately Of course, around 70, this side effect is mainly related to the type and dosage of the drug.

4. Damage to the kidneys

Some chemotherapy drugs, such as cisplatin, nitrosourea, cyclophosphamide, etc., can damage or even cause renal failure, so be careful . Patients receiving chemotherapy with such drugs should drink more water, and at the same time, pay attention to preventing the occurrence of symptoms such as cystitis, urgency, dysuria, and hematuria.

5. Damage to the heart

Many chemotherapy drugs are toxic to the heart, such as doxorubicin, daunorubicin, cyclophosphamide, etc., which may occur after using these chemotherapy drugs Various degrees of palpitations, chest tightness, myocardial ischemia, arrhythmia, acute heart failure, hypotension and other symptoms. Strictly control the dosage of these cardiotoxic drugs, stay in bed and pay attention to a low-salt diet when taking the drugs.

6. Damage to the liver

Chemotherapy drugs can cause varying degrees of liver damage, such as elevated transaminases, jaundice, fatty liver, liver fibrosis, and even acute liver disease. Necrosis etc.

7. Nervous system damage

Chemotherapy drugs can cause varying degrees of damage to peripheral nerves and central nervous system, and can even cause direct damage to brain cells, causing the death of healthy brain cells. This in turn leads to a series of neurological damage symptoms in patients. For example, damage to the peripheral nerves may cause numbness, muscle aches, or even mild paralysis; damage to the central nervous system may cause symptoms such as insanity, depression, auditory nerve damage, and optic neuritis.

8. Other side effects

Most of the drugs used to treat cancer can also cause cancer and teratogenesis. It can also cause pigmentation and hyperkeratosis of skin and claw nails, hair loss, immunosuppression, pulmonary fibrosis, endocrine disorders, reproductive dysfunction and phlebitis, etc.