Peer Reviewed
Feature Article Respiratory medicine
Diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer: a focus on the GP’s role
Recent articles on:
Lung diseases
Lung diseases
Abstract
The lung cancer epidemic has mirrored changes in smoking patterns in Western countries and has caused innumerable deaths. Approaches to identification, diagnosis and treatment of the disease are changing and are discussed in this article.
Key Points
- Patients with nonresolving respiratory symptoms warrant investigations to exclude malignancy.
- Staging is the cornerstone of lung cancer prognosis, and also guides treatment.
- Patients with lung cancer are best managed by multidisciplinary teams, often with multimodality treatment.
- Early palliative care input for patients with advanced lung cancer improves quality of life.
- Smoking cessation is the most effective intervention to prevent lung cancer.
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