Determining the stage of the cancer is usually the primary factor in determining the best treatment plan and making a prognosis about the patient's chances for survival. Lung cancer is no exception and overcoming it depends mostly on the location and stage of the cancer and less on the type, though the type can also affect the speed in which the cancer develops making it more difficult to diagnose it earlier in its development.
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Obviously, starting from the first stage and going through all the 4 stages of lung cancer the chances for survival decrease considerably and treatment loses its ability to destroy the cancer. About 30% of the patients are diagnosed when they reach stages 1 or 2 and this is a good thing in terms of long-term outcome.



Though stage 1 is the one that offers the best chances for survival, stage 2 non-small cell lung cancer is also a localized cancer and it represents a condition that has not become invasive yet. By this stage the cancer has either spread to local lymph nodes or has grown slightly bigger than 3 cm. The location of this cancer can be either the region of the main bronchus or the pleura, the edge of the lungs. Stage 2 lung cancer can also be further divided into stages 2A and 2B. The difference is that in the first case the tumor is less than 3 cm but has spread to local lymph nodes while the second is larger and has also spread to local lymph nodes.

If we were to understand and categorize these stages as oncologists do we would be using the TNM (size, involvement of lymph nodes, metastases) system to describe stage 2 lung cancer. Stage 2A lung cancer would then be described as T2N1M0 which means that the tumor is greater than 3cm, that it has spread to local lymph nodes and that no metastasis is present.



The most common symptoms for this stage include: coughing up blood, persistent cough, shortness of breath, chest pain and frequent infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

The standard treatment option is surgery and there are three types of procedures that can be performed, depending on the location of the tumor and the ability of the patient to tolerate surgical intervention. Adjuvant chemotherapy is also commonly administered and radiation therapy can be used to replace surgery of the patient is not able to have surgery because of the tumor's location or his health state. Radiation therapy at this stage can offer good chances for curing the cancer. Clinical trials are also a good alternative to undergo less invasive surgery. They are also a great way to be the first to benefit from new medications and radiation procedures that can offer breakthrough cures.

People don't actually get lung cancer but lung cancer develops slowly inside the body resulting from an abnormality in the cell. Healthy cells turn cancerous when they begin to grow and divide out of control disrupting the body's system of balances on cell growth. This uncontrolled division and growth eventually leads to the formation of a mass called a tumor. Tumors can be benign and malignant, the later ones being the ones associated with cancer.
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Lung cancer is the most common death cause for patients with cancer.This was not the case before 1930 but due to the boom of the tobacco industry and the increase in the number of people smoking, today almost 160.000 out of 220.000 patients with lung cancer have died in 2009 from lung cancer. In many countries outside US, because of a more intense public education about the risks of smoking the incidence of lung cancer has actually begun to fall.



Even is smoking is the cause most linked to lung cancer it does not account for all lung cancers. Many people who have never smoked in their lives can also develop lung cancer. But what we can say for sure is that smoking is a great risk factor for lung cancer with 90% of the cases related to it in a way or another. Pipe and cigar smoking can also cause cancer and the more you smoke the more vulnerable you are to lung cancer. However, cigar and pipe smokin slightly reduces the risk. A smoker who smokes one pack of cigarettes per day exposes himself to a 25 times higher risk to have lung cancer than a non-smoker. For somebody who smokes only cigars or pipe this difference in risk drops to only a 5 times higher risk than a non-smoker.

In a way you could say that you can get lung cancer for smoking, but it just wouldn't be 100% accurate. However, it is accurate enough to spread around and let it fixate itself in the minds of people around the world. You can even "get" lung cancer from passive smoking as 3000 cases in US each year are attributed to passive smoking. Living with a smoker increases your riskc with 24% than that o a non-smoker to develop lung cancer.



However, other risk factors also play an important role in the incidence of lung cancer. These include exposure to asbestos, radon, familial predisposition, lung diseases, prior hisory with lung cancer, air pollution and a few others relating mostly to your life-style and working environment.

If you think many of these factors apply in your case you should schedule yourslef for a medical examination, even an x-ray. Don't wait for symptoms to appear as they usually do only when the cancer is too advanced to offer good chances for a cure.

It's a quite well known fact that the stage of the development of the cancer in our organism can determine everything from our treatment options to our chances of survival. With lung cancer, as well as other cancers, the system used to categorize and split these stages uses numbers from 1 to for and for further divisions it uses letters A and B.
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So what is stage 3A in lung cancer and what does it tell us about our condition, risk factors, treatment options and chances for survival? This is a question oncologists hear very often as 30% of the patients have already progressed to this stage by the time of diagnosis. The most frequent form these questions take is about life expectancy in this stage.



Statistics give a clear picture but you shouldn't base your judgement solely on statistics. The truth is that stage 3 lung cancer life expectancy varies significantly among different people. Other factors that influence it decisively are age, sex, lifestyle risk factors, your physical condition, how the patient responds to treatment, complications. It is very important to keep in mind that while stage 3 may or may not eventually be curable, it is really worth being treated. Treatment can actually improve survival chances and help alleviate symptoms and it is really expected for the stage 3 cancer life expectancy to improve considerably in the future.

Stage 3 cancer can be further divided and 3A non-small cell lung cancer is also called a locally advanced  cancer. The tumor has spread to lymph nodes but not to other distant regions of the body. Almost 10% of patients have stage 3A at the time of diagnosis.

The overall 5-year survival rate for patients diagnosed with stage 3A lung cancer is 23%. This is an average and can vary enormously among different cancers that are classified as stage 3A.

The treatment of stage 3A lung cancer is the most debated on of all lung cancer stages. This is due to the fact that this group is so varied. Considering the poor survival rate, the NCI (National Cancer Institute) has recommended that everyone with stage 3A lung cancer should be considered for clinical trials, which are studies that are evaluate new, more effective treatments or combinations.



In many cases,surgery can be performed with great success rates. It is then usually followed up with adjuvant chemotherap or radiation therapy. Such treatments can also be very effective if used before the surgery too. Combining chemotherapy and radiotherapy is most likely to be used if surgery is no longer a valid option. A cancer can be inoperable either because f its location or the extent of its invasion. The patient's condition and general health might also make surgery too risky. For those that are unable to undergo surgery or chemotherapy, there's still radiotherapy, with sufficient chance for curing the cancer.

Recently there have been many campaigns anti smoking especially because smoking has been responsible for the majority cases of lung cancer and also for the large numbers of deaths which is registered ever year, meaning over 1 million people killed by this disease .
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The numbers are worrying and many people do not realize the risks they expose themselves to . Lung cancers starts with the apparition of lung tumors which are mainly caused by the bad substances which are contained by the tobacco which is found in the cigarettes that people usually smoke . This is one of the most deadly things and what is worse is the fact that people do not realize it because in the stage 1 when lung cancers is at beginning and the tumors just start to appear and to grow, people do not even notice their presence because the early symptoms do not actually exist and in this stage lung cancer could be discovered only if the patient would do some regular checking that will include also the lungs

Then in stage two, things can be different from patient to patient, from one body to another type of body because it involves the development of the cancer tumors and how they have been growing . In stage two the lung cancer can be still local or it can start to spread to other parts of the body and usually in this stage are affected the lymph nodes which are localized in areas not far away from the places where the lung tumors are localized .

The most part of the patients who are diagnosed with lung cancer disease are usually found in a more advanced stage of lung cancer usually stage 3 because in this faze lung cancer has many symptoms like coughing very persistent, coughing up blood, having back and chest pain and also shortness of breath and in some cases repeated affections of the lungs like bronchitis .

So it is important for the patients to know more about stage 3 lung cancer . In this stage, lung cancer becomes to be much more complicated because it is no longer just a local cancer that it is found only in the lungs ; when it has reached this faze, it starts to spread to many other parts of the body so many healthy organs start to be affected by the cells infected with cancer so lung cancer soon affects the lymph nodes which are not found in the nearby places of the tumors but they are on the same body part as the tumors, and also they can start to affect many organs : the adrenal glands, the bones and all the bone system, the digestive system, the heart and even the brain .

If people know more about stage 3 lung cancer , they can start to understand why it is necessary to prevent lung cancer and also to go in time for checking because it will be much more easily to cure a cancer in an early stage than in an advanced stage .

The most frequent type of lung cancer is the non small cells lung cancer which can be found under various form but this is not the point .
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No matter what kind of non small cells lung cancer is, it is still a terrible disease that is responsible of over 1 million deaths each year and more than 1,3 millions cases are found each year and a great amount of the total number of cases, meaning over 90 per cent of the total number, has been caused by smoking because there is a very strong connection between the growth and apparition of the lung tumors that are developed in the lungs and the cigarettes and numbers of cigarettes smoked by a person and also the period of time in which the person has been smoking . The non small cells lung cancers are differentiated by the stage is which they are found because there is a scale on which the stage of the cancer can be measured .

The scale is formed by four different stages which means that stage I is considered the easiest type of cancer because it is the beginning when lung cancer just starts to appear meaning that lung tumors just start to show up and grow in the lungs cavity and cancer is found only in that area .

With stage two there can start to appear more problems meaning that lung cancer can start to spread to the lymph nodes near the tumors places or on the same part of the body as the tumors but to the lymph nodes that are found at certain distances away from the places where the tumors are localized . Another problem that might occur is the fact that lung cancer can spread to many other areas like other organs and areas of the body and the cells from the organs were healthy but with the spread of the cancer can become affected and harmed and they will not function properly .

Stage four is also the terminal stage of the lung cancers and there are very many problems that might harm even more the quality of the patient’s life which has already been very damaged by the presence of the cancer in the lung cavity . Terminal lung cancer prognosis is very poor because in that stage the cancer have spread to so many areas and there have been developed many affections and complications that have affected many of the vital organs and functions of the organism .

Life expectancy that is given to lung cancer patients when they are first detected with this disease is five years but not many of the patients really get to live all this period of survival rate that they are given . Terminal lung cancer prognosis can even be considered zero because the few patients who actually manage to live in this stage have extremely and badly complications and damages in their body and they can not live properly .

Lung cancer is very often deadly for the patients who are diagnosed with lung cancer so the majority of the patients almost 85 or 90 per cent from the total number which are diagnosed with lung cancer disease, die till the end of the five years survival rate which they are given the moment they are diagnosed .
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Mostly this happens at the patients who are diagnosed with advanced stages of lung cancer because the cancer is metastatic, has spread to other parts of the body, has affected other organs and there appeared complications and also because the variety of treatment that can be applied is more restrained .

If we talk about early stages, things may look a little bit more optimistic . So let’s take an early faze but no the first faze of lung cancer meaning stage 2 lung cancer . This stage is also a localized cancer as the other types but the definition is a little more different . In this stage there is a lung tumor but the cancer may or may have not spread to the lymph nodes but the only thing sure is that the lung cancer have not spread to other parts of the body, and this is extremely important.

The patients who are diagnosed with this stage represent only about 30 per cent of the cancer cases but their prognosis for life is certainly much more better than the prognosis for the advanced stages meaning stage 3a or 3b, stage 4 is obvious the gravest case . When we talk about stage 2 lung cancer , we also speak about the lung tumors wich are greater than 3 cm and are developed and localized in the region of the main bronchus or they may also be found in a zone where they invade the lining of the lungs which is named pleura .

There can be also made a classification or better said a division of the stage 2 into two stages such as : stage 2a which is about the tumors that have sizes under 3 cm but the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes and also stage 2b which means that the tumors are bigger than 3 cm and they have spread to the lymph nodes or they are localized in the space nearby the main bronchus or they are localized in the lung lining or pleura .

Both fazes which are included in stage 2 have the following symptoms : persistent and rough cough and also coughing up blood is also possible , there is also a shortness of breath, the patient can develop many repeated infections such as pneumonia or bronchitis , and also there can occur pains in the chest area , in the back zone, but such symptoms which can be found in other advances stage such as weight loss and a feeling of tiredness can not be developed . The treatment for this stage are : surgery , adjuvant chemotherapy , radiation therapy .

Annually people all over the world die because of the lung cancer and the number of death per year has reached over 1,1 ,millions patients and the main reasons for this are : the advanced stages in which the patients are diagnosed with this disease, the poor survival rate that they are given and the little number of patients who manage to survive all the life expectancy period, the numbers not so large of treatments that can be applied and also the wide range of complications that can develop as effects of the lung tumors .
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For small cell lung cancers, there is one advanced stage and that is the extended stage but only 20% of the patients are diagnosed with this type of lung cancer . The majority of patients are diagnosed with different types of non small cell lung cancers and with advanced fazes which can be stage III and stage IV . If for the first two stage I and II the survival rates are pretty good for squamous cell – epidermoid is 38% for first stage and 16% for the second stage , for adenocarcinoma 32% for first stage and for second stage 7% , undifferentiated large cell 30% for first stage and 6% for second stage, for stage III the survival rates are divided between the two types of stage III : stage III a and stage III b .

Although only 10% of the patients which are detected with advanced stages of lung cancer are included in stage 3a it is important to know what is the prognosis for stage 3a lung cancer because it is a little more better that stage 3 b . The prognosis for this 3a stage is 23%, meaning that only this percentage of patients manage to survive the five years period of survival that they are given when the lung cancer is it detected .

Stage 3a means that there has been discovered an advanced case of local cancer but which it has already spread to other parts and organs of the body and the major factor is that it reached the lymph nodes which are found on the same part as the lung tumors . If you have found out what is the prognosis for stage 3a lung cancer, you should consider the fact that stage 3b is defined more rougher than stage 3a because the tumor can be extremely large and they affected the nearby lymph nodes but there could also be different sized tumors but they reached lymph nodes from the same part of the body but which are localized at certain distance away from the tumors’ places .

The prognosis for this stage can be between also 23% as for stage 3a but it can also reach lower values such as only 10% because many of the patients have many internal complications and their main vital organs are already affected and they do not function normally and also the symptoms and effects on the patient’s body can become really hard to bear .

We hear all the time that lung cancer kills over 1.1 millions people annually because they detect it in advanced stages but many people do no know actually what does this thing means . They should know that the majority of people who are diagnosed with lung cancer have usually tumors which are very developed so they are in most cases in stage 3 of lung cancer .
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The majority of cases are about non small cell lung cancers which have four fazes of the disease meaning that I is the earliest one and the IV is the terminal one . So you can figure out that non small stage 3 lung cancer is a pretty rough case and that there are many problems with the treatment and medication in this stage .

Stage 3 is an advanced stage of lung cancer which is composed of two other stages which are called 3a and 3b . Stage 3a is defined when there is an advanced case of local cancer but which it has already spread to other parts and organs of the body and the major factor is that it reached the lymph nodes which are found on the same part as the lung tumors . All the patients which are diagnosed with serious advanced stage of lung cancers , thos diagnosed with stage 3a represent only 10% of them .

This stage has two possible situations : one is when the large tumors of the patient spread to the lymph nodes which are localized very close to the tumors and there is also the second situation when the tumor have various sizes but the cancer has spread to lymph nodes which are localized at a certain distance of the tumors but they are on the same body as the tumors . The symptoms are shortness of breath, rough and persistent cough even coughing blood, many infections and also pain in back, chest or ribs .

Non small cell stage 3 lung cancer has also the stage 3b which is defined in the following way : the original tumor has spread to the lymph nodes and in many other parts and organs of the body, the tissues have started to invade and to affect other systems of the body such as cardiovascular or digestive and also other situation is when there is a buildup of fluid in the lungs ; this last situation is very serious because it can easily cause many complications : a serious shortness of breath but also because of the oxygen levels drop , there will be a lack of oxygen that can lead to big enlargements of heart that could fail .

The symptoms are very similar with those of stage 3a but the pneumonia and bronchitis occur very often and the patient also feels extremely tired and also starts losing weight without making something to produce this lose .


Stage 3 of lung cancer has treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy but the chances of the patients are poor .

Lung cancer is a very rough disease because it is extremely deadly due to the fact that from 1.35 millions people diagnosed each year with lung cancer , almost 85-90% are actually killed per year . Each year almost 1.18 millions patients are in the end killed by this terrible disease but it is important to mention that the survival rate depends on the type of cancerous cells and also on the stage of the cancer . In most cases when the patient is diagnosed , the cancer is already advanced and the chances for survival are pretty small and the types of treatment that can be applied are also much more restrained .
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For example let’s take the case of non-small cell lung cancer and an advanced stage let’s say stage 3a . This kind of cancer at this stage is thought to be an advanced local cancer which has already spread throughout the body and has even reached lymph nodes ; meaning it has extended on the same side as the tumor . From all the patients that are diagnosed with advanced stage of lung cancer , circa 10% have a stage 3a and almost 60% have even more advanced stages .

This stage is defined by two situations : one means that the patient has large tumors and the fact that cancer has already spread to lymph nodes which are closer to the tumor or the second situation when there can be tumors of different sizes but they have spread to lymph nodes which are away from the tumors but they are on the same side of the body as the tumors . The symptoms of this stage are almost the same as for any type of cancer : shortness of breath, persistent and terrible cough, many repeated infections, here meaning bronchitis or pneumonia and the areas where the cancer has spread are : diaphragm, chest wall and the patients develop other types symptoms such as: terrible pains in ribs, shoulders, back, chest .

Because of all this factors, the treatment is pretty hard to establish but the majority of treatments consist of : surgery for removing the tumor, chemotherapy sometimes before the surgery but many times it is used after surgery, or a combination of chemotherapy medications and radiation therapy . The average survival time of stage 3a non small cell lung cancer is the overall 5 year survival rate but the percentage is circa 23% . This survival rate can vary depending on the type of the treatment and for how much time has been the disease discovered .

Average survival time of stage 3a non small cell lung cancer is a pretty optimistic one if we look to other survival rates for other types of lung cancer , meaning the cancerous cells ; so if we refer to squamous cell-epidermoid the rate is almost 9% and if we refer to small cells – undifferentiated and rare giant cell carcinoma the percentage is nearly 0% because the disease is very quick fatal to the patient .

Final stage lung cancer or any other terminal illness is not easy to deal with. Some people have a hard time discussing it with their doctor or family, probably fearing whatever they are to expect in that stage. However knowing the phases might be essential if not for the person who is suffering from the cancer, for the caregiver. Knowing what to expect, what measures to take to prevent certain things from happening and fight others may be comforting.

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So here are a few pointers about changes that may occur. Final stage means that all treatment options have been exhausted and the disease can no longer be cured. At this time the cancer has probably spread to both lungs as well as other organs in the body. However even when healing is no longer possible, medicine can still play it's part in reducing the discomfort caused by the progression of the cancer.



There will be a fluid build-up around the lungs, a fluid that contains malignant cancer cells and that will result in shortness of breath. To improve breathing and bring some more comfort to the person, the fluid can be drained. Also a procedure can be performed to prevent the fluid from continuing to build up.

Some lung cancers that grow near the airways can cause bleeding as well as obstruction of the airways. A procedure can be performed to stop these from happening. Lung cancer often spreads to the bones causing pains in the chest and spine. Medication can be given for these pains or radiation therapy may be recommended.

When the cancer spreads to the brain other symptoms like headaches, seizures, speech problems, fatigue, weakness can appear. In this case as well radiation therapy may be recommended to reduce discomfort. There are others symptoms specific to terminal cancer of any kind like weight loss and profound fatigue. There will also be emotional changes in the person such as withdrawal, lack of interest in family and friends, lack of interest in previously favored activities. The person may resent loosing abilities to care for itself and become irritable. The person may also sleep more than before.

In the final days the person may be going through a process now called 'active dying'. Researchers now think that dying actually takes a few days rather than an instant. During that process it may seem like a system is shutting down, body temperature decreases, breathing is changed, the person doesn't feel the need to eat or drink, confusion and hallucinations might appear.



In many cases after these changes occur the person seems to suddenly recuperate, unfortunately it only lasts a very short while before the person passes away. In the final moments the person will stop breathing and the heart will slowly stop beating. Final stage lung cancer is difficult to cope with which is why, knowing the facts may help people to slowly prepare themselves for the events that are inevitable.