Where is it possible to treat lung cancer?
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Lung cancer is a dangerous disease with an unfavorable prognosis. The disease is almost incurable. Symptoms are manifested late, and at the time of detection, most patients are not even subject to surgical treatment. Let's talk about whether it is possible to beat lung cancer in the best hospitals in the world and what methods of treating it have emerged over the past few years.
Content
- Is lung cancer curable?
- Lung cancer – what to do?
- Where should I get a cure for lung cancer?
- New methods in lung cancer treatment
- Which country is better to undergo treatment in?
- Hospitals and costs of treatment
- How to visit the hospital abroad?
Is lung cancer curable?
There are few who have survived lung cancer. Lung cancer is a serious disease with an unfavorable prognosis, almost always leading to death. There are several reasons why lung cancer cannot be cured. The first is its late detection. There are no nerve endings in the lung tissue, so the person does not feel pain and does not seek help. When this finally happens, the oncologic process would have gone too far. The second reason is the rich vascularization of the lungs. The organ has many blood vessels through which metastases spread throughout the body.
Therefore, if you ask your doctor if it is possible to cure lung cancer, his answer will most likely be negative. Nevertheless, some people have beaten lung cancer. Those who had the disease detected at early stages. With a successful location of the tumor and a mild histological form, it is possible to achieve good results in the therapy of the disease.
Unfortunately, many patients are not even subject to surgical treatment. It is crucial to get checked for lung cancer because surgical treatment will become impractical if the disease is diagnosed late due to the widely spread oncologic process and distant metastases.
Lung cancer – what to do?
Although it’s tough to find those in the world who have been cured of lung cancer, the actual incurability of the disease is not a reason to give up. 90% of known diseases cannot be cured once and for all. But this does not mean that after the diagnosis is established, a person must go to bed and die. People must fight for their life, and modern medicine helps them in this.
Don't take it as false hope, meaning lung cancer is curable. Nonetheless, therapeutic measures help to increase a patient's life expectancy. This is what should become the main goal of treatment. It doesn’t matter that it’s impossible to beat lung cancer completely. It can still be fought for many years to have decent life quality.
The treatment scheme depends on the stage at which the tumor is found. The tumor can be resectable. In this case, the surgery is performed. It is established that surgical treatment, on average, raises the five-year survival rate by two times.
The question is what to be done when lung cancer is detected at a late stage. Then the surgery is not carried out. But, although it is impossible to beat stage 4 lung cancer, even at this stage, there are effective methods of treatment that allow for slowing the growth of the tumor and increasing life expectancy. These methods include radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Developed countries also use target therapy and immune therapy.
Where should I get a cure for lung cancer?
There is no place where there is a cure for stage 4 lung cancer. This is because medicine has not evolved to the level where it’s possible to cure severe illnesses at such an advanced stage. But for other people, the question of where to treat lung cancer is of great importance. To make a choice, you need to understand where lung cancer is treated better. Most people tend to undergo a course of therapy abroad because there is a better survival rate.
There are many hospitals where lung cancer is treated well. But we must understand that the main goal of therapy is not so much a complete cure of the disease as the achievement of remission and the maximum of its prolongation. In most cases, a person cannot be cured completely. Relapse will occur sooner or later. However, in hospitals where lung cancer is best treated, doctors manage to prolong the patient's life for several years.
When a person is looking for a cure for lung cancer, they usually choose between medical institutions in their home country and foreign hospitals. If the most important question for the person is how much it costs to treat lung cancer, they usually choose treatment at the place of residence. It may not be of high quality and will not allow prolonging the life significantly. But a person saves material means. But if life is more important than money, then the answer to the question of where is better to treat lung cancer is unambiguous. It is desirable to receive therapy in the best hospitals in the world. Basically, these are medical institutions in developed countries, such as Germany.
In developing countries, survival statistics are significantly worse. For example, in the CIS countries, up to 80% of patients die within the first year after diagnosis. The overall five-year survival rate is 10%. This is the percentage of people who have lived five years or more after the tumor was diagnosed.
Statistics are more optimistic in developed countries where lung cancer treatment is available to residents and visiting medical tourists.
Thus, for non-small cell lung cancer, the five-year survival rate is;
- Stage 1 - from 68 to 92% (depending on the sub-stage)
- Stage 2 - 53-60%
- Stage 3 - 13-36%
- Stage 4 - 1-10%
As you can see, the results are far from ideal, even in the best clinics. Nevertheless, the treatment of lung cancer abroad looks more promising. In the best German hospitals, there are many doctors who have been treating lung cancer for many years and have made great progress in the therapy of this disease. Even in the later stages, a person has a good chance to live a few more years.
Supposedly, if a patient has been diagnosed with non-small cell lung carcinoma in stage 3A, the average five-year survival rate for this group of patients is 36%. It would seem that the chances of surviving during this time are only one to three. However, one must understand that not all of them receive qualitative treatment. Many are elderly or have severe concomitant diseases. Accordingly, if the patient is not 70 years old with no decompensated somatic pathologies, and he is treated in one of the best hospitals in the world, he will likely be among the 36% of people who will live no less than five years after establishing the diagnosis. Besides, that does not mean that he will live exactly five years. 36% of patients are those who have overcome the five-year boundary, but they can live much longer - 10 years or more.
It should also be considered that this is statistics for the past years. We do not know how long people will live after starting treatment today. Given the emergence of new promising approaches to lung cancer therapy, life expectancy in developed countries will likely increase in the coming years.
New methods in lung cancer treatment
New lung cancer treatment methods have been constantly developed in countries with high-level healthcare. They are what help to increase the average life expectancy of the patients.
Here are ways to treat lung cancer that have emerged within the last few years:
- Video-controlled surgeries for the removal of small lung tumors (VATS) - allow the doctor to perform surgical intervention without large incisions. This reduces the rehabilitation period, improves the tolerability of treatment, and reduces the risk of complications. Currently, the development of VATS surgeries, which could be used for large tumors, continues. This technology is used in specific large oncology centers in developed countries. The technique refers to robot-assisted surgery.
- Four-dimensional real-time computed tomography (4DCT) - is used for more accurate guidance during remote irradiation. The CT scan is taken within 30 seconds. As a result, the machine "remembers" the tumor's location not at a particular moment but in different phases of the breathing process. 4DCT also allows you to assess the resectability of the tumor and its relationship with other structures of the chest.
- Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) - the doctor receives images directly during the irradiation process, which facilitates more accurate targeting. This technology reduces the number of side effects, as it reduces the radiation dose for healthy tissues.
- New approaches to drug treatment. In developed countries, genetic analyzes are used to determine the ERCC1 and RRM1 proteins. They allow predicting the response to chemotherapy and planning an optimal treatment regimen. New drugs for targeted therapy are introduced. Genetic analysis is used (determination of changes in the EGFR gene) to predict its effects.
- Immune therapy. It has been established that PD-L1 proteins on the surface of cancer cells block the immune response, preventing the body from entirely defeating the tumor. Special drugs that suppress these proteins have already been developed and are being used in clinical practice. In addition, vaccines that react to the MUC1 protein are being introduced. The result is a more active response of the immune system to a malignant tumor. So far, only preliminary data have been received. It is not yet known whether the vaccine will help to increase the life expectancy of patients.
Which country is better to undergo treatment in?
People often prefer to be treated either in their own country or in one of the nearby states. Preference is given to countries not only based on geographical location but also by taking into account the language and community of culture. For example, patients from CIS countries who suffer from lung cancer are often treated in Russia. Besides Russians themselves, some specialists have treated lung cancer in Israel or Germany. Residents of the Far East often go to South Korea or Japan. Many people visit China, especially after learning how much it costs to treat lung cancer in Harbin. After all, it is usually cheaper than in many countries with a high level of population well-being.
There are many hospitals that treat lung cancer in Moscow. However, the quality of medical services is lower there than in Germany. Many methods have not yet been applied, although they are already available in economically developed countries.
One of the criteria by which patients are guided is the price of treatment. The cost of lung cancer treatment in Moscow depends on the therapy scheme used. Usually, the price of medical services is lower than in Germany. But it can be compared with the cost of lung cancer treatment in Israel.
Sometimes the price is the main criterion for choosing a hospital. Not all people have money for quality medical services. Therefore, having learned how much it costs to treat lung cancer in Ukraine or other financially unfavorable countries, medical tourists often make a choice in favor of these states.
Hospitals and costs of treatment
Among the numerous hospitals that offer lung cancer treatment, the following demonstrates the best success rates:
- St. Vincentius Hospital Karlsruhe – Academic Hospital of the University of Freiburg, Department of Pulmonology
- University Hospital Heidelberg, Department of Cardiology, Angiology and Pulmonology
- University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Department of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Angiology
- University Hospital Frankfurt-am-Main, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Pulmonology, Allergology, Endocrinology and Diabetology
- University Hospital Jena, Department of Cardiology, Angiology, Pulmonology and Intensive Care
The average cost of the main methods of lung cancer treatment is as follows:
- Thoracotomy with segmental tumor resection in lung cancer – €36,950
- Video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) lobectomy in lung cancer – €37,870
- Lung cancer treatment with extended pneumonectomy – €49,400
- Lobectomy with da Vinci robot in lung cancer – €34,230
- Lung cancer treatment with embolization of tumor vessels – €14,400
- Lung cancer treatment with radiation therapy – €30,000
- Lung cancer treatment with proton therapy – €106,330
- Lung cancer treatment with embolization or chemoembolization – €42,560
- Lung cancer treatment with chemotherapy – €12,230
- Pulmonary rehabilitation after completion of the main course of treatment – €966 per day
How to visit the hospital abroad?
You cannot choose a hospital where lung cancer is treated most effectively. The reason is that you do not have special knowledge and cannot adequately assess the quality of the provided medical services. Therefore, we suggest using the Booking Health service.
On our site, you can find out:
- In which clinics in the developed countries do they treat cancer.
- How much are the costs to treat lung cancer in Germany, depending on the methods used
- How long the treatment of lung cancer lasts (the duration of each treatment-diagnostic program is indicated).
- What are the level of the clinic’s equipment, the level of comfort, and the results of treatment?
You don’t have to search on your own necessarily. You can use our services. Just leave a request on the website. The specialist of Booking Health will contact you in the near future and offer several options. In addition, we can fully arrange your treatment in Germany, thus reducing the waiting time for the initiation of therapy and your expenses for medical services 1.5-2 times.
Choose treatment abroad and you will for sure get the best results!
Authors:
The article was edited by medical experts, board certified doctors Dr. Nadezhda Ivanisova, Dr. Sergey Pashchenko. For the treatment of the conditions referred to in the article, you must consult a doctor; the information in the article is not intended for self-medication!
Sources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
IMTJ - International Medical Travel Journal
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