What Happens in Stage 4?

Transcript

The previous videos have covered the basics on how to go about a curable cancer, stage one to three, when it comes to cancer of the lung. What most people are found to have, or eventually do have, is stage four cancer. And that’s when cancer has spread to other parts other than where it originated in the lung.

It can be sometimes as close as the pleural effusion or that fluid that goes around the lung. If that has cancer cells in it, that is stage four and incurable. It can go to the bones and in one circumstance, if it goes only to the brain, it could still be curative in intent, or the goals can be cured if you could address that one or two lesions with radiation or surgery. But short of these, some people do elect to go for removing the one spot of a metastasis, say in your adrenal gland, you have one there, and it seems like your lung cancer is pretty local otherwise, you can remove that surgically and still go for a cure.

Short of these, once it’s spread to other places, you’re going for what we call palliative therapy. We want to control the cancer for as long as possible, but we probably aren’t able to cure it.

Key Takeaways

1. Stage four cancer is when cancer has spread to other parts other than where it originated in the lung.

2. It can go to the bones and in one circumstance, if it goes only to the brain, it can be cured if you could address that one or two lesions with radiation or surgery.

3. But short of these, some people do elect to go for removing the one spot of a spread and if it seems like your lung cancer is pretty local otherwise, you can remove that surgically and still go for a cure.

4. Once it’s spread to other places, you’re going for palliative therapy, where we want to control the cancer for as long as possible, but probably aren’t able to cure it.