Lung cancer again..

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my mother has been diagnosed with lung cancer..they cant cut it out and she is having chemotherapy and radio treatment..im just worried because on reading the other thread it made it sound very unlikely of there being hope of recovering..if anyone has any facts or advice for me it wouldbe awsome to hear..thanksx

I'm afraid lung cancer is particularly difficult to treat. Your mother may recover temporarily but the best that treatment can usually do is buy some extra time.

why is lung cancer the hardest? surely they can treat it..i just cant believe she might die..

I'm just guessing here, but it would seem harder to treat because cancer in certain parts of the body can be surgically removed without life threatening concerns. The lungs and other parts can't be dealt with so easily. It all also depends on where the cancer is present. If it's in a lobe of the lung then it can be removed. If it's nearer the "root" then it's a different story. I would also think that becasue of the significant amount of blood that flows through the lungs, metastasis(sp?) is a significant risk.

thanks...i am just hearing loads of stuff about people knowing people who died..i just want to hear of people who have got through it..etc..its a bit shit.

Yeah, most of the members here are a pretty young crowd so cancer is not something many will have experienced except through others.

The reason why lung cancer is hard to treat is that it's slow-growing. By the time you get any symptoms the tumour has already been there for a long time and has probably metastasised - that's when cells break off from the main tumour into the bloodstream and lodge somewhere else and start new tumours. If metastasis has taken place then surgery to remove the main tumour cannot remove all the cancerous cells, and since some of the secondary tumours will be microscopic at the time of the surgery, their position is not known. It's usually secondary tumours that cause death.
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are mainly based on the fact that cancer cells multiply much faster than normal cells. Since lung cancer is slow, the cells don't multiply as rapidly and are therefore less sensitive to anti-cancer drugs or radiation.