What Are The Common Complications That Can Happen to A Stage 4 Lung Cancer Patient?

No wonder lung cancer is the deadliest disease worldwide, killing around 200,000 people every year and only around 5% of the patients are able to survive after being diagnosed for five years. Oncologists are not able to provide definite survival rate for patients with stage 4 lung cancer. Survival rate for every patient vary and it depends upon the patient on how they will live their lives and what treatments they would like to undergo with.

Cancer cells can grow rapidly and attack other healthy cells and metastasized to other parts of the body if not cured or treated at an earliest time. There is a cure for this disease when the cancer has been found out during the early stage. If not, then complications can arise that can increase the health risk of a patient. Now what are the common complications happening to stage 4 lung cancer patients?

Lung disease will not just damage the lung but can also cause complications in different parts of the body particularly in our liver, bones and brain. If the tumor has grown only in one lung, there is a possibility that it would also grow to your opposite lung. More and more tissue will be damaged that can decrease lung capacity causing difficulty in breathing. Fluid build ups or pleural effusion around the lungs commonly occur to stage 4 lung cancer patients that also makes it for them to difficult breathing.

Liver helps in removing toxins and waste but it will not be of any help at all once the cancer cells reaches your liver and shuts it down. You will most likely loss appetite if it has already metastasize in your liver. You will also experience pain in the upper right of your abdomen and become fatigue most of the time. Your skin and your eyes becomes yellow and when pathways in your liver has already been blocked by tumor it can cause liver secretions into the bloodstream. From the time the liver will not be able to detoxify the body, it can result to death.

Another organ that is affected of stage 4 lung cancer complications is the brain. It is very common even with other cancers. Increase growth of cancer cells damages nerve cells. You will know if the cancer cells has reached your brain when you experience intense headaches most of the time. Seizures are due to tumor increasing and causing pressure. It has been believed that radiotherapy can help in slowing down the fast growth of cancer cell in the brain.

These are only few of the complications that happens to a patient of end stage lung cancer. If you want to know more about the complications caused by lung cancer you can talk with your oncologist. However, all of these will not happen to any of us as long as we prevent smoking, either active or passive, exposing ourselves to carcinogens and pollutants.