• Question: Is there a cure for lung cancer?

    Asked by thebeatles to Carys, Chris, Jeremy, Katherine, Simone on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Katherine Jones

      Katherine Jones answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      At the moment there are medicines that can cure some cases of lung cancer, but sadly not all of them. There different types of lung cancer – different medicines are used depending on the type of lung cancer someone has, and also depending on how far advanced it is.

      Scientists are trying to find treatments and cures for the different types and stages of lung cancer, and other types of cancer too. I think as there is more research happening, there will be more successful treatments than there are at the moment.

    • Photo: Jeremy Green

      Jeremy Green answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Many people survive lung cancer, so for them the answer is yes. There is chemotherapy (medicines that poison cancer cells), radiation therapy (that can be targetted at the tumour to kill it) and some new generation therapies (medicine that target the cells that grow to make the tumour and stop them growing). There are many kinds of lung cancer, and scientists are beginning to work out which therapies work on which kinds best, but because the differences may be very subtle, this is very much the cutting edge of cancer science.

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