However there are very good drugs to control these side effects. Hair always grows again, about three months after the chemotherapy courses have finished. Non Small Cell lung cancer is ideally treated by surgery which carries the best chance of cure. If a patient with severe COPD has a lung or part of a lung removed the remaining lung will not cope with the strain, leading either to permanent severe disability or possibly not surviving the surgery. Radiotherapy is eitherradical orpalliative.
Radical radiotherapy attempts to cure the cancer.
It is only used in highly selected patients who are just not quite fit enough for surgery. It involves a number of doses of radiation with a high total dose. Palliative radiotherapy is widely used and involves lower doses of radiation, often with just one or two doses. It is very good for relieving symptoms e.g. controlling pain from metastases in bones.