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Lung Cancer, What Is The Life Expectancy? - Dr. Sanderson (VIDEO)

 
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More Videos from Dr. David R. Sanderson 30 videos in this series

Dr. Sanderson shares what a woman can do if her lung cancer is not shrinking and explains what the life-expectancy is for patients with this condition.

Dr. Sanderson:
If a lung cancer has been diagnosed and if it is deemed not susceptible to surgical treatment she probably will be seen by either or both of radiation oncologist and a medical oncologist and they will determine a treatment plan. Unfortunately not all of those individuals will have favorable outcomes and that cancer may continue to grow in spite of our best efforts of controlling it with drug therapy or radiation.

Then it’s frustrating and the patient is frustrated, their doctors are frustrated but often times if the patient is developing increased symptoms, hospice care can be a very helpful assist both to the patient and to the patient’s family.

The life expectancy from lung cancer depends a great deal on the cell type – the microscopic appearance, we’ve talked about small cell lung cancer and non-small cell. The certainly expected survival with non, with small cell lung cancer is unfortunately not much longer than two years with aggressive management.

Of those that are diagnosed early, there can be up to 50 percent survival, long-term survival with non-small cell lung cancer if it can be resected completely and if there are no involved lymph node draining the tumor. But overall the, all comers the life expectancy unfortunately is less than five years.

About Dr. Sanderson, M.D.:
Dr. David R. Sanderson, M.D., practices at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, specializing in pulmonary care. Dr. Sanderson attended the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. He completed his residency and fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Visit Dr. Sanderson at Mayo Clinic

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