Useful Facts About Endstage Lung Cancer

What Is Endstage Lung Cancer?

As the word indicates, endstage lung cancer means that the lung cancer is in the final stages, which has caused detrimental effects on a person’s health and has steered that person close to death.

What Should An Individual Do When Going Through Endstage Lung Cancer?

It is always best to consult your oncologist to know as to what can be done in the endstage of lung cancer and what options does one have for treatment and what would be the survival rate. There are also programs for patients who are at the endstage of the disease, which provide counseling to the patients, as well as advise them on different aspects such as to make a living will etc. There are some patients who ask for a DNR and DNI status, which means that they should not be resuscitated and should not be intubated when they are dying and these codes are noted in the chart of the patients so as to respect the choices of the individuals. The patients can also ask the oncologists to tell them if there are any clinical trials that are going on currently on the patients who have been going through the same disease process as they are.

What Are The Clinical Signs At Endstage Lung Cancer?

The clinical signs that are observed in patients with endstage lung cancer are increased blood in sputum that is coughed up, pain in chest, anorexia, increased weight loss, respiratory difficulties, as well as not being able to perform activities of daily living.

What Is The Clinical Picture Of Endstage Lung Cancer?

The clinical picture of endstage lung cancer is very very horrible. In this stage the patient is at the worst of health conditioning. The patient at this time is suffering from a lot of problems and in another way one can say that the patient is living a miserable life. One of the clinical aspects of lung cancer at advanced stages is that the patient has metastasis of lung cancer to different organ systems, which in turn causes a lot of other medical issues apart from the respiratory ailments, like if the cancer has spread to brain then it affects the memory and ultimately compresses different areas of brain, which results in loss of function of those areas. There are many other symptoms related according to the spread of the cancer to the specific organs and would affect their normal functioning and would ultimately cause a cluster of symptom complex leading to excessive deterioration of health status, ultimately leading to death.

What Happens In Stage IV Lung Cancer?

Stage IV lung cancer is the last stage in which there are many symptoms that affect the patient in the most serious way. One of the symptoms that affect the patients the most is the collection of the fluid in their lung, which needs to be drained out every now and then to prevent them from draining in their own bodily fluids. The other major thing is the spread of cancer and the normal functions of the organs are affected.

Can Stage IV Lung Cancer Be Cured?

The lung cancer at its last stages cannot be cured and in this stage only symptomatic care can be followed so as to lessen the pain of the patient and improve their quality of life as much as possible. For example, if the patient is suffering from cough, then this symptom needs to be taken care of by giving anti-tussives to prevent cough. If there is an increased electrolyte imbalance and this is in turn resulting in decreased bowel motility with the loss of potassium, then the patient must be replaced with potassium so as to prevent the bowel motility. So the patients who are going through the terminal stage cancer, must receive the symptomatic care that arises from time to time by the health care providers.

LUNG CANCER


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