This weekend, Dr. Jyoti Patel will be running the Chicago Marathon to celebrate all of those with advanced lung cancer who are here “10 years strong.” During her long training runs, Dr. Patel has been able to reflect on her patients and look forward to the next great advances in lung cancer prevention and treatment.
Posted online November 13, 2012 on www.jco.org.
Background
Cancer care is made up of treatment(s) to slow, stop, or eliminate the cancer combined with treatments to relieve the related symptoms and side effects, called palliative or supportive care. However, for some people, there is a point when the available treatments cannot control the growth and spread of the cancer. This may be called advanced or terminal cancer. Then, the main focus of treatment is on managing the symptoms of the cancer.
This section provides information on the following topics:
Curing childhood cancer is not always possible. Sometimes, treatment cannot make cancer go away completely. But the health care team can still treat a child's cancer and make them comfortable.
Children with advanced cancer sometimes live for many months or even years. They can have treatment to control the cancer and symptoms. This can help them live as well as possible for as long as possible.
