Lung Cancer: Symptoms, Stages, Survival, and Immune Support

Lung cancer: the deadliest of them all

Lung cancer is the most common cancer. It accounts for 11.1% of all diagnosed cancers,¹ and it is a merciless leader: lung cancer is responsible for 20.6% of all cancer deaths — more than breast, prostate and colorectal cancers combined.¹ In other words, it is very hard to treat, which is why (for now) the best way to fight it is prevention. Lung cancer symptoms often resemble other conditions, so regular check-ups are essential.

Classification. The main types of lung cancer are:

• Small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC): a very aggressive, fast-growing form, making up to 20% of cases. It can respond well to anticancer drugs and radiotherapy, but it frequently recurs.
• Non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC): the most common form, about 80% of cases, generally slower-growing.

Lung cancer symptoms

Symptoms depend directly on the type of cancer and its location in the lungs. It is important to understand that in early stages 2–6% of people feel no symptoms at all, which is why screening is vital. The most common signs of NSCLC (about 85% of cases) tend to relate to airway irritation:

The causes of lung cancer

What cancer is, and what causes it, is well understood (inherited genes account for only a very, very small share²). The International Agency for Research on Cancer maintains the carcinogen list. The causes of lung cancer are fairly simple and fall into two groups:

1. Smoking — responsible for nearly 80–90% of lung cancer cases. The harm of smoking to the body is enormous: it is not only cancer you risk, because smoking also affects the heart, blood vessels, brain, and the whole organism. The statistics suggest that if smoking prevention worked effectively, lung cancer could be reduced by as much as 90%.

2. Environmental factors — passive smoking, radon, asbestos, air pollution, and a small genetic predisposition.

How lung cancer is diagnosed

The first test is a chest X-ray, which is fairly accurate — lung cancer very rarely shows no changes on a chest X-ray (only about 2% of cases). Regardless of the X-ray findings, patients are advised to undergo a chest CT scan with intravenous contrast. To check for metastases (the cancer spreading to other organs), other tests may follow: tomography, scintigraphy, ultrasound, spirometry, thoracoscopy or mediastinoscopy. Interventional diagnostic procedures are also used — for example bronchoscopy (a tube inserted into the airways to inspect them) or transthoracic lung biopsy. The doctor selects the tests according to the signs and the patient's condition.

Lung cancer stages

The stage (the extent of disease spread) is assessed in order to choose the right treatment and estimate prognosis (survival). The spread of both small-cell and non-small-cell lung cancer is described by assessing the primary tumour (T), spread to regional lymph nodes (N), and distant metastases (M) — giving the clinical TNM classification.

Lung cancer treatment

Treatment depends on the stage and is chosen with regard to age, condition and comorbidities. Early stages (up to and including 3A) are treated with surgery, which may be followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Where surgery is not possible, radiotherapy and chemotherapy may be given concurrently. Locally advanced disease (3A–3B) may be treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, then surgery. Advanced disease with many metastases is treated with anticancer drugs.

Lung cancer survival

Five-year survival for non-small-cell lung cancer, by stage:

Is lung cancer curable?

The survival projections for lung cancer are, statistically, fairly grim — but do not give up. A prognosis is never, and can never be, zero. Your task is to make sure you land in the percentage of people who successfully overcome cancer. Often, that is no accident. Even where metastases are found in the lungs, the statistics can be "adjusted"⁴ if you are ready to give up harmful habits and balance your diet and lifestyle.

Quality immune support during lung cancer

If you want to help your body heal, reduce inflammation, balance your diet and strengthen the immune system's ability to recognise and destroy altered cells, relying on chemotherapy, surgery or radiotherapy alone will not be enough. Lentinan — a polysaccharide extracted from medicinal mushrooms — was officially approved in Japan in 1985 as an adjunct in the treatment of oncological diseases.⁵ Since then it has been widely used across Asian countries as a complementary therapy alongside chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

It is important to understand that a single mushroom extract is often not enough. Different medicinal mushrooms have different mechanisms of action: some activate NK (natural killer) cells, others strengthen the macrophage response, others act as antioxidants.⁶ This is precisely why a concentrated multi-extract formula is more effective than single ingredients.