Lung Cancer Treatment - Learn About Treatment Resistance and Disease Progression Here

L ung cancer is one of the most common cancers in both sexes, and one of the most devastating. On top of being hard to detect at an early stage, non-small cell lung cancer treatment is extremely hard to beat successfully. Many patients manage to fight the disease at first, but on the way to better health, non-small cell lung cancer has the ability to change and mutate, becoming resistant to the drugs. Scientists are looking for a new way to fight this mutation that halts the disease's progress, but there is nothing totally effective as of now. An important step to this treatment is the identification of an ALK gene rearrangement, since it will decide the best path to take regarding the treatment. Depending on the ALK gene, some treatments are more effective than others. This is what will decide the type of therapy required to achieve results. Lung cancer consists of 6 stages. The occult stage, where the cells are there but the tumor hasn’t formed yet. Stage 0, the cancer is still small and has not spread into deeper lung tissues. Stage 1, the disease starts to appear. Stage 2, the cancer is now spreading to nearby lymph nodes. Stage 3, it is now spreading to nearby organs, such as the heart. Finally, stage 4, it has already spread throughout the body and it can even affect the brain or bones.