Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer, warns medical oncologist Mila Petrova.
"In recent more than 20 For years, the efforts of oncologists around the world have been aimed at improving the diagnosis and the prognosis for the cure of patients with lung cancer", she admits.
The path of diagnosis of this type of carcinoma is very unclear, as it is usually associated with non-specific complaints, like a cough, Husky voice, subfertility.
"Symptoms, which he usually thinks about, that this will pass", says Dr. Petrova. The delay is often also because the patient visits their general practitioner first, who thinks, that it is a viral or bacterial infection.
"Time passes, no examination is done with another specialist doctor, appropriate early steps are not taken, to determine if the condition is really problematic or not. With one antibiotic, the infection is extinguished, and this patient can then 8 – 10 month to go to the doctor again, in order to do the relevant tests and arrive at a diagnosis. But this is already happening at a very late stage, where we cannot cure the patient. We can extend its life, but we can't cure it", admits the oncologist Mila Petrova.
A significant change from the last ones 4 ‒ 5 years, which gives lung cancer patients greater hope in treatment, is the possibility of examining tumors by additional markers.
"This makes it possible to determine the right treatment for the patient. Currently, there is an opportunity to further examine the tumor for various mutations, and in suitable patients, targeted therapy can be administered, immunotherapy, to reduce the risk and the possibility that the disease will not return in one form or another", says Dr. Mila Petrova. And she's proud, that these medicines have been used in Bulgaria for a long time:
"These are medicines, which have the so-called. firming effect, ie. further reduce risk and allow after 5, 10 years for patients to live".
You can learn about the risks of late diagnosis of lung cancer and what are the modern options for its treatment in the video with presenter Orlin Pavlov.
