Pemetrexed

Treatmentoflung cancerrefers to the use of medical therapies, such assurgery,radiation,chemotherapy,immunotherapy, percutaneousablation, andpalliative care,alone or in combination, in an attempt tocureor lessen the adverse impact ofmalignantneoplasmsoriginating in lungtissue. Lung cancer is an extremelyheterogeneousfamily of malignant neoplasms,and well over 50 differenthistopathologicalvariants are currently recognized under the most widely used typing system.Because these variants have differing genetic, biological, and clinical properties, including response to treatment, correct classification of lung cancer cases are necessary to assure that lung cancer patients receive optimum management. Approximately 95% of lung cancers arecarcinoma, or tumors derived from transformed cells ofepitheliallineage.Currently, nearly four dozen different histopathological variants of lung carcinoma are recognized.For clinical and treatment purposes, however, mostoncologiststend to classify lung carcinomas into two major groups, namelysmall cell carcinoma(SCLC) andnon-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC). This is done because of differing responses to treatment—NSCLC is comparatively less sensitive to chemotherapy and/or radiation, so surgery is the treatment of choice in these tumors. SCLC, in contrast, usually initially responds well to chemotherapy and/or radiation, but has usuallymetastasizedwidely by the time it is discovered, making surgery ineffective. In a 2010 study of patients with metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer, "earlypalliative careled to significant improvements in both quality of life and mood. As compared with patients receiving standard care, patients receiving early palliative care had less aggressive care at the end of life but longer survival" which was increased by approximately three months. There are typically three objectives applied to the treatment of lung cancer and can vary by patient or individual diagnosis: (1) curing lung cancer, (2) controlling lung cancer, and (3) being comfortable.