Lung Cancer: Natural History, Prognosis, and Therapy

The five-year survival of patients with lung cancer has remained at a dismal 5% to 10% for decades. Looking at this statistic alone, however, conceals important advances in our knowledge about lung cancer. This book focuses on some of the advances. Of 18 chapters six concern epidemiology, tumor growth, histology classifcation, prognosis in relation to stage of disease, and death from nonmalignant causes. The remaining chapters cover therapy, especially chemotherapy, radiation treatment, immunotherapy, and supportive care. Separate chapters deal with the all-too-common problems of caring for patients whose lung cancer is either locally unresectable or metastatic. The editors have written approximately half of the material, with ten contributors providing the rest. The book contains information that will be useful to anyone confronted with responsibility for patients with lung cancer. Some is directly applicable to patient care, but much is rather conceptual and thus would be of particular interest to oncologists