What is immunotherapy and how it works against cancer?

Immunotherapy is using the body's natural immune system to eradicate the cancer, either directly by boosting the normal processes or by diminishing the cancer's defence against this process.

It is thought that potentially cancerous cells are arising all the time - cells going rogue. Normally one of two things happen: the cells own system causes the cell to die - it is non-viable; or it is recognised by the immune system as wrong and destroyed.   Its one of the therapy in which the ferociously growing cancer cells and their growth is suppressed. Like there are pros and cons everywhere this therapy has its con in while it is successful most of the time sin suppressing the cancer cells at times event he bodies basic immuno cells also get suppressed and that's is why the person experiences side effects like fever, gastro intestinal troubles, changes in bowel movements and fever also at times. Hence beware ask your doctor adequately about the levels of the therapy and also the impact, effect and affect of it  on the patient getting treated.

 Morever, Immunotherapy is treatment that uses certain parts of a person’s immune system to fight diseases such as cancer. This can be done in a couple of ways:

Stimulating your own immune system to work harder or smarter to attack cancer cells

Giving you immune system components, such as man-made immune system proteins

Some types of immunotherapy are also sometimes called biologic therapy or biotherapy.

In the last few decades immunotherapy has become an important part of treating some types of cancer. Newer types of immune treatments are now being studied, and they’ll impact how we treat cancer in the future.

Immunotherapy includes treatments that work in different ways. Some boost the body’s immune system in a very general way. Others help train the immune system to attack cancer cells specifically.

Immunotherapy works better for some types of cancer than for others. It’s used by itself for some of these cancers, but for others it seems to work better when used with other types of treatment.

However, if you need any additional help online from people who have fought or are fighting cancer kindly visit the web page or Facebook page of an NGO named Yoddhas. They provide online support for Cancer Patients.

The Organization has helped many cancer patients to a successful fight and has worked relentlessly towards helping and supporting Cancer patients. it is called biologic therapy, is a type of cancer treatment designed to boost the body's natural defenses to fight the cancer. It uses materials either made by the body or in a laboratory to improve, target, or restore immune system function. It is not entirely clear how immunotherapy treats cancer. However, it may work in the following ways:

• Stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells
• Stopping cancer from spreading to other parts of the body
• Helping the immune system work better at destroying cancer cells

There are several types of immunotherapy, including:

• Monoclonal antibodies
• Non-specific immunotherapies
• Cancer vaccines
• Oncolytic virus therapy

How is lung cancer detected? How is it treated?

Treatment depends on the type of lung cancer you have. The treatment for non small cell lung cancer is different from the treatment for small cell lung cancer.
 
Small cell lung cancer is mostly treated with chemotherapy.Surgery is only suitable if there is no sign that the cancer has spread to the lymph glands in the centre of the chest (the mediastinal lymph glands). This is rare with small cell lung cancer. It has usually spread at the time of diagnosis. So chemotherapy is usually the main treatment. You may also have radiotherapy to treat this type of lung cancer. There is information below about the treatment of small cell lung cancer by stage.
 
Non small cell lung cancer can be treated with surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or a combination of these, depending on the stage when the cancer is diagnosed. Some people with advanced lung cancer may have biological therapy. There is information below about the treatment of non small cell cancer by stage.

How treatment is planned

Your cancer specialist looks at a number of factors that help them to plan your treatment. These include
 
The type of lung cancer you have
Where the cancer is within the lung
Your general health
Whether the cancer has spread (the stage)
Results of blood tests and scans
Your own wishes

You may find that other people you meet are having different treatment from you. This may be because they have a different type of lung cancer. Or it may be that some of the other factors listed above are different. Don't be afraid to ask your doctor or specialist nurse any questions you have about your treatment.

Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are all used to treat lung cancer. They can each be used alone or together. Your doctor will plan the best treatment for you. Some people with advanced non small cell lung cancer may have biological therapy.

Treatment by stage for small cell lung cancer

If you have early stage small cell lung cancer you are most likely to have 
chemotherapy and then radiotherapy to the lung. People who are fairly fit may have chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the same time (chemoradiation). It is quite common for this type of cancer to spread to the brain. So doctors often recommend radiotherapy to the brain for people whose lung cancer shrinks with chemotherapy treatment. You usually have radiotherapy to the brain at the end of the chemotherapy treatment. It aims to try to kill any cancer cells that may have already spread to the brain but are too small to show up on scans. Doctors call this prophylactic cranial irradiation or PCI.
 
For very early stage small cell lung cancer that has not spread to the lymph nodes in the centre of the chest (the mediastinal lymph nodes), you may have surgery to remove the part of the lung containing the tumour (a lobectomy). The surgery is followed by chemotherapy and sometimes radiotherapy. But usually the cancer has already spread at the time of diagnosis and surgery is not then possible.
 
If you have small cell cancer that has spread to lymph nodes or other areas of the body you may have chemotherapy, radiotherapy or treatment to relieve symptoms. If chemotherapy works well to shrink the lung tumour down and you are fairly fit you may also have radiotherapy to the brain to kill any cancer cells that may have already spread there.
 
Treatment by stage for non small cell lung cancer

You can find out about your treatment options by answering the questions on this interactive flowchart.

Stage 1
Stage 1 non small cell lung cancer is uncommon. You normally have surgery to remove part of the lung (a lobectomy) or all of the lung (a pneumonectomy). If you can't have an operation for other health reasons, your doctor may suggest targeted radiotherapy instead to try to cure the cancer. Another option for small tumours if you cannot have surgery is radio frequency ablation (RFA).
 
Stage 2
For stage 2 non small cell lung cancer, you may be offered surgery. Depending on the position of the tumour, your surgeon may remove part of the lung (a lobectomy) or all of the lung (a pneumonectomy). If the cancer is completely removed, your specialist may suggest chemotherapy. The chemotherapy aims to lower the risk of the cancer coming back. Doctors call this adjuvant chemotherapy. It is important that your doctor talks to you beforehand about the benefits and side effects of chemotherapy. If the surgeon could not remove all of the tumour you may have radiotherapy afterwards. 
 
If you can't have surgery due to other health concerns, your doctor may offer radiotherapy or combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy (chemoradiation). This treatment aims to try to get rid of the cancer completely.
 
Stage 3
For stage 3 non small cell lung cancer you may be able to have surgery, depending on where the cancer is in the lung. You may need to have the whole lung removed (a pneumonectomy). If the surgeon completely removes the cancer, you may then have chemotherapy to try to lower the risk of the cancer coming back. If the surgeon finds cancer cells in the lymph nodes during the surgery they are likely to advise you to have chemotherapy and possibly radiotherapy after the operation.
 
If you can't have surgery due to other health concerns, your doctor may offer radiotherapy or combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy (chemoradiation). This treatment aims to try to get rid of the cancer completely.
 
If your scans showed that there are cancer cells in the middle area of the chest (the mediastinum), your doctor may suggest radiotherapy instead of surgery. The cancer may be too close to your heart to operate safely. Or your doctor may advise that you have a course of chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. Some people who are fairly fit and have small tumours have radiotherapy at the same time as chemotherapy (concomitant chemoradiotherapy). Concomitant chemoradiotherapy causes more side effects than the treatments given alone. So you need to be well enough to cope with the increased side effects.
 
If scans show signs of cancer in the lymph nodes on the opposite side of your chest, surgery is not possible. But you may have a course of chemotherapy. After the chemotherapy you might need further treatment with radiotherapy. If you are fairly fit you may have radiotherapy at the same time as chemotherapy. 
 
Stage 4
Treatment for stage 4 non small cell lung cancer aims to control the cancer for as long as possible and to shrink the tumour down to reduce symptoms. Many trials have used chemotherapy in this situation and we know that it can help people to live longer as well as relieving symptoms. 
 
People whose cancer cells have particular proteins (receptors) may have treatment with biological therapy drugs called erlotinib (Tarceva), gefitinib (Iressa) or crizotinib (Xalkori).
 
If you have had chemotherapy and it is no longer controlling the cancer, you may have further chemotherapy if you are well enough. If your cancer has EGFR receptors your doctor may offer erlotinib treatment. Or you may choose to have no further active treatment but to control your symptoms with medicines.
 
You may have radiotherapy to control symptoms such as pain or a cough. As well as radiotherapy, other treatments can relieve a blockage and reduce symptoms if you have a tumour in one of the main airways (the left or right bronchus). These treatments include
 

1. Internal radiotherapy (brachytherapy)
2. Laser treatment
3. Freezing the tumour (cryotherapy)
4. Using a rigid tube (a stent) to keep the airway open
5. Light therapy (photodynamic therapy – PDT)

Metastasis brain cancer

There are about 24,000 primary brain tumors per year in the U.S. - tumors which start in the brain, grow there, and almost never spread beyond it. The vast majority of tumors involving the brain, however, have spread there from cancers arising elsewhere. Sites outside the brain, such as the lung, breast, skin (melanoma), bowel, kidney, etc. develop cancers from which tiny clumps break off, travel through the blood stream, and lodge in the brain. Some of these clumps of cancer cells find the brain to be fertile soil and grow there.

It’s hard to estimate the total number of brain metastases. In the U.S., there are about 1.6 million new cancers each year and about 10% - 30% of those will give rise to brain metastases. Lung cancers are probably responsible for the most, spreading to the brain at least 25% of the time.

Brain metastases, just like primary brain tumors, can cause any possible neurologic symptoms - seizures, muscle weakness, paralysis, sensory changes, cognitive dysfunction, the inability to speak, blindness, deafness - anything you can think of.

The treatment for brain metastases is obvious - we have to get rid of them - so they stop putting pressure on the healthy brain tissue and interfering with its function. Sometimes surgical removal is the most efficient way to do this, but more commonly, the focused use of radiation therapy can kill the cancer cells, which can then be resorbed by the immune system. Focussing high doses of radiation precisely on the areas involved by tumor cells is a technique called stereotactic radiosurgery. Systemic treatments, such as chemotherapy are less effective due to a layer in walls of the the arteries supplying blood to the brain called, appropriately enough, the Blood Brain Barrier. Newer therapies, such as those which modulate the immune system, may not be so limited in this regard, but their efficacy is still under investigation.

If someone with a cancer diagnosis develops new neurologic symptoms, an MRI may be indicated to assess the possibility of brain metastasis. The sooner they are treated, the less permanent brain damage occurs and the better the quality of life for the patient.

Additionally, Every year approx 100,000 people in the United States diagnosed with brain metastasis. Brain metastasis is cancer started in another part of a body and spread to the brain, these types of brain tumor is also called as secondary brain cancer. Brain metastasis is not same as primary brain cancer but some common in both brain tumors sometimes best to consider the second opinion for cancer.

Many types of cancer spread to the brain these cancers are as follows.

• Bladder cancer
• Breast cancer
• Germ cell tumor
• Kidney cancer
• Leukemia
• Lung cancer
• Melanoma

Some symptoms of metastasis brain tumor including

• Decreased coordination
• Fever
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Memory loss
• Numbness
• Rapid emotional changes
• Vision changes
• Vomiting
• Weakness of body area

The reason why lung cancer is so deadly, and so quick

It's important to know that lung cancer is cured in about 16-18% of patients, which is not a statistic to be proud of, but it's important to know that some patients are definitely cured of lung cancer, just not as many as anyone would hope.
 
Part of the challenge is that lung cancer is typically found when it is already stage 3 or stage 4 out of 4 stages, with staging being the measure of the extent of spread of the cancer in the body. The lower the stage, the more likely a person is to live for a long time (and in some cases, to be cured). Looking at "non-small cell lung cancer" (NSCLC), which represents about 88% of cancers in the US today, cures are achieved in about 70-75% of patients with stage 1 disease, 45-50% of those with stage 2 disease, about 20% of those with stage 3 disease, and they are vanishingly rare in patients with stage 4 NSCLC.  Up until very recently, our screening system for lung cancer included waiting until you had symptoms of the cancer, which most commonly occurs late in the disease, with high stage disease, and having little or no chance of cure. Most of the cures have historically been in patients who had an early stage cancer detected on imaging done when they went in for some other issue, such as a routine x-ray before a gallbladder surgery, etc. Screening, which is intended to be limited to those with higher risk for lung cancer (age 55-75 or 80 and with a significantly smoking history) markedly increases the chance of detecting a lung cancer when it's early and has a much better chance of being cured.
 
Another key point is that the biological behavior of a cancer varies from patient to patient. Lung cancer tends to be on the aggressive (relatively fast-growing) side in the pace at which it grows without treatment, but there is a wide range.  When detected as stage 4 (advanced, incurable) disease, if patients don't undergo treatment, the median survival of patients (the time at which half of patients have died and half remain alive) is about 4-5 months. However, some patients will have a cancer that grows and spreads at a pace that can kill them in a matter of days, while others will have a much slower-paced disease and can live a year or even years without treatment (a small minority can even have such indolent disease that they may never die from the cancer).
 
There is also a relatively high risk of invisible in addition to visible disease.  This is the main reason why the cure rate for even stage 1 disease in 75% and not 100%.  Surgery is potentially curative for early stage disease, and a combination of treatments (often chemo and radiation, or chemo with or without radiation followed by surgery) are potentially curative for stage III NSCLC, but lung cancer has a significant risk of having spread at a microscopic level --  in other words, there is a significant risk of invisible disease in addition to visible disease.  The best surgery and radiation won't treat microscopic disease that has spread distantly throughout the body. The higher the stage of the cancer, the higher the chance that the cancer has spread and isn't truly curable, even if it appears it might be.
 
Finally, there is the challenge of sensitivity vs. resistance of the cancer. Chemotherapy improves survival in the majority of patients, but lung cancer is not among the most responsive ones to systemic (whole body) treatment. Our chemo is more effective and less toxic than it was 10-20 years ago, by and large, and there are now several "targeted" systemic therapy approaches that can be very significantly beneficial for a minority of patients. That proportion of patients benefiting very significantly from a targeted therapy against a target identified on their cancer is growing but is still only in the 10-20% range. Overall, systemic therapy improves the median survival of patients with advanced/metastatic NSCLC by 3-4 months, at least, in the broad majority of patients, and a minority will live for more than 6-12 months, sometimes even several years, from highly effective systemic therapy, even if it isn't curative. We hope to see a growing proportion of patients living longer and longer from these treatments.  But advanced NSCLC essentially always becomes resistant to the therapies that are initially helpful.
 
I hope that helps answer your question. As is always the case for a big question, the answer isn't one factor but several converging issues.
Morever, as we know: 

• 40% of the cancer type across the world is lung cancer. The chief factor responsible for this cancer is smoking. Active as well as passive smoker both are affected by smoking. Depending upon the age factor cancer cells appear prominently. Smoking is not solely responsible. In some cases non smokers are badly affected due to extremes of pollution, food intake pattern, lifestyle, intake of carcinogenic and heredity. Symptoms of lung cancer are mostly seen at the third-A stage amidst many patients. However it may differ according to diversity in human body response. Apparently, stage 3-A and stage 3-B cancer patients survival rate of 5 years is only 2–15%. Rest patients are seen to have a survival rate of 2–3–4 years or even months. In the 4th stage the cancer might has already reached to some bones, affected one lung, lymph nodes and vocal cord.
• If your near and dear ones are affected by lung cancer, the best possible treatment you can give them is utmost care, love and motivation towards willingness to live happily:). Medical science is making improvements and advances in medications incessantly. You can assure expected longevity with proper medications. But with the ongoing treatment, co-operarion from the side of the patient is also of uber importance.
• Medications of ayurveda and healthy nutrient diet also proves miraculous in some patients health. It was seen rare though. But at least why not give it a try. Perhaps, you maybe lucky enough to get your disease cured. Here is the link which will be helpful for you :

Is there a cure for lung cancer?

Treatment by stage for small cell lung cancer: 

If you have early stage small cell lung cancer you are most likely to have chemotherapy and then radiotherapy to the lung. People who are fairly fit may have chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the same time (chemoradiation). It is quite common for this type of cancer to spread to the brain. So doctors often recommend radiotherapy to the brain for people whose lung cancer shrinks with chemotherapy treatment. You usually have radiotherapy to the brain at the end of the chemotherapy treatment. It aims to try to kill any cancer cells that may have already spread to the brain but are too small to show up on scans. Doctors call this prophylactic cranial irradiation or PCI.

For very early stage small cell lung cancer that has not spread to the lymph nodes in the centre of the chest (the mediastinal lymph nodes), you may have surgery to remove the part of the lung containing the tumour (a lobectomy). The surgery is followed by chemotherapy and sometimes radiotherapy. But usually the cancer has already spread at the time of diagnosis and surgery is not then possible.

If you have small cell cancer that has spread to lymph nodes or other areas of the body you may have chemotherapy, radiotherapy or treatment to relieve symptoms. If chemotherapy works well to shrink the lung tumour down and you are fairly fit you may also have radiotherapy to the brain to kill any cancer cells that may have already spread there.

Stage 1

Stage 1 non small cell lung cancer is uncommon. You normally have surgery to remove part of the lung (a lobectomy) or all of the lung (a pneumonectomy). If you can't have an operation for other health reasons, your doctor may suggest targeted radiotherapy instead to try to cure the cancer. Another option for small tumours if you cannot have surgery is radio frequency ablation (RFA).

Stage 2

For stage 2 non small cell lung cancer, you may be offered surgery. Depending on the position of the tumour, your surgeon may remove part of the lung (a lobectomy) or all of the lung (a pneumonectomy). If the cancer is completely removed, your specialist may suggest chemotherapy. The chemotherapy aims to lower the risk of the cancer coming back. Doctors call this adjuvant chemotherapy. It is important that your doctor talks to you beforehand about the benefits and side effects of chemotherapy. If the surgeon could not remove all of the tumour you may have radiotherapy afterwards.

If you can't have surgery due to other health concerns, your doctor may offer radiotherapy or combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy (chemoradiation). This treatment aims to try to get rid of the cancer completely.

Stage 3

For stage 3 non small cell lung cancer you may be able to have surgery, depending on where the cancer is in the lung. You may need to have the whole lung removed (a pneumonectomy). If the surgeon completely removes the cancer, you may then have chemotherapy to try to lower the risk of the cancer coming back. If the surgeon finds cancer cells in the lymph nodes during the surgery they are likely to advise you to have chemotherapy and possibly radiotherapy after the operation.

If you can't have surgery due to other health concerns, your doctor may offer radiotherapy or combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy (chemoradiation). This treatment aims to try to get rid of the cancer completely.

If your scans showed that there are cancer cells in the middle area of the chest (the mediastinum), your doctor may suggest radiotherapy instead of surgery. The cancer may be too close to your heart to operate safely. Or your doctor may advise that you have a course of chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. Some people who are fairly fit and have small tumours have radiotherapy at the same time as chemotherapy (concomitant chemoradiotherapy). Concomitant chemoradiotherapy causes more side effects than the treatments given alone. So you need to be well enough to cope with the increased side effects.

If scans show signs of cancer in the lymph nodes on the opposite side of your chest, surgery is not possible. But you may have a course of chemotherapy. After the chemotherapy you might need further treatment with radiotherapy. If you are fairly fit you may have radiotherapy at the same time as chemotherapy.

Stage 4

Treatment for stage 4 non small cell lung cancer aims to control the cancer for as long as possible and to shrink the tumour down to reduce symptoms. Many trials have used chemotherapy in this situation and we know that it can help people to live longer as well as relieving symptoms.

People whose cancer cells have particular proteins (receptors) may have treatment with biological therapy drugs called erlotinib (Tarceva), gefitinib (Iressa) or crizotinib (Xalkori).

If you have had chemotherapy and it is no longer controlling the cancer, you may have further chemotherapy if you are well enough. If your cancer has EGFR receptors your doctor may offer erlotinib treatment. Or you may choose to have no further active treatment but to control your symptoms with medicines.

You may have radiotherapy to control symptoms such as pain or a cough. As well as radiotherapy, other treatments can relieve a blockage and reduce symptoms if you have a tumour in one of the main airways (the left or right bronchus). These treatments include

Internal radiotherapy (brachytherapy)

Laser treatment

Freezing the tumour (cryotherapy)

Using a rigid tube (a stent) to keep the airway open

Light therapy (photodynamic therapy – PDT)

The way to cope with your mother's lung cancer diagnosis

Without meaning to be totally insensitive to your shock and sadness about your mother's diagnosis, at this time, this is about her and not you.

Want to help her and yourself?

• Educate yourself about this disease so you know what she faces. 
• Go with her to her oncologist and listen to the treatment plans. Take notes so that if she can't remember the details, you have them. She may be in a kind of shock right now.
• Go with her to treatments.
• Be brave -- it's contagious.
• Allow her to keep her dignity and to do all she can, as long as she can.
• Do whatever makes her physically comfortable.
• Be yourself.
• As things progress, make a card tree in her house for all the cards she will get from friends and relatives so she will have a reminder that people care about her when they can't visit. 
• Try to make life as normal for her as possible.
• Do NOT be all gloom and doom.
• Love her -- love is a verb.
• Listen to her.
• Be kind.
• Be an adult child who learned how to nurture from an incredible lady.
• Be grateful.

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Jeffrey Poehlmann, blogging about cancer and other things at http://www.justbadforyou.com/blog

Written Apr 27, 2016

This is a pretty common emotional response. The prospect of losing a loved one to any condition, especially, perhaps, cancer because it is so culturally loaded, is extremely difficult.

But we all have to face death in our lives, even of those we love and admire and connect to as a regular part of our lives.

You are extremely lucky to be young and have children, to whom you are responsible and for whom you will be fulfilling the same role that your mother has filled for you. Think about that, about how you will want your children to cope when you die. And imagine how your mother wants you to respond to her passing. Perhaps you have even talked about this before.

But don't focus on her death now. There will be time for that later. Right now, focus on celebrating the time you have left, and even when she dies, try to focus on celebrating your memories and your history. We all lose our parents at some point, and it is never easy if you were close (often even if you were not close). I miss my father all the time and I am grateful every time I get to talk with my mother -- even if she is irritating. There is just something special about that relationship, even when they are painful to maintain, so having a parent that you consider a best friend is pretty amazing and you should continue to embrace that. But don't let the threat of cancer diminish h0w you feel together.

When your mother is undergoing treatment, she will need a good friend to talk to -- not about cancer, but about life. Talk about the same things that you always talk about. Be a good friend to her. And help her connect with her other friends, the ones who "knew her when" and make sure that you are always there to listen when she needs it. But also find some outlets AWAY from your mother. Being a caregiver is extremely stressful, even when the cancer is curable or highly treatable (as progressively more lung cancers are). I don't know the diagnosis of your mother's cancer (I've got Stage IV, myself, and it is being managed extremely well;I expect to be around for a long time yet -- just had an infusion yesterday and I'm feeling good after doing this every three weeks for about a year and a half), but I will say that just "having cancer" is not the end of the world. Living with cancer is still an option for more and more patients, for longer and longer terms. Even if she is in an advanced stage, treatment may offer her anywhere from a few really good extra months to enough years that she could easily "outlive" the cancer and die of something else entirely.

So my advice for coping is to embrace the day. Focus on the loving relationship and what has always made it work for you. Don't look at this as all doom and gloom. Look at it as an opportunity to focus -- do the things you want to do together, make the time to fill in any remaining gaps, but mostly, enjoy the time you have and notice what it is that makes this world a wonderful place.

Morever, This is a pretty common emotional response. The prospect of losing a loved one to any condition, especially, perhaps, cancer because it is so culturally loaded, is extremely difficult.

But we all have to face death in our lives, even of those we love and admire and connect to as a regular part of our lives.

You are extremely lucky to be young and have children, to whom you are responsible and for whom you will be fulfilling the same role that your mother has filled for you. Think about that, about how you will want your children to cope when you die. And imagine how your mother wants you to respond to her passing. Perhaps you have even talked about this before.

But don't focus on her death now. There will be time for that later. Right now, focus on celebrating the time you have left, and even when she dies, try to focus on celebrating your memories and your history. We all lose our parents at some point, and it is never easy if you were close (often even if you were not close). I miss my father all the time and I am grateful every time I get to talk with my mother -- even if she is irritating. There is just something special about that relationship, even when they are painful to maintain, so having a parent that you consider a best friend is pretty amazing and you should continue to embrace that. But don't let the threat of cancer diminish h0w you feel together.

When your mother is undergoing treatment, she will need a good friend to talk to -- not about cancer, but about life. Talk about the same things that you always talk about. Be a good friend to her. And help her connect with her other friends, the ones who "knew her when" and make sure that you are always there to listen when she needs it. But also find some outlets AWAY from your mother. Being a caregiver is extremely stressful, even when the cancer is curable or highly treatable (as progressively more lung cancers are). I don't know the diagnosis of your mother's cancer (I've got Stage IV, myself, and it is being managed extremely well;I expect to be around for a long time yet -- just had an infusion yesterday and I'm feeling good after doing this every three weeks for about a year and a half), but I will say that just "having cancer" is not the end of the world. Living with cancer is still an option for more and more patients, for longer and longer terms. Even if she is in an advanced stage, treatment may offer her anywhere from a few really good extra months to enough years that she could easily "outlive" the cancer and die of something else entirely.

So my advice for coping is to embrace the day. Focus on the loving relationship and what has always made it work for you. Don't look at this as all doom and gloom. Look at it as an opportunity to focus -- do the things you want to do together, make the time to fill in any remaining gaps, but mostly, enjoy the time you have and notice what it is that makes this world a wonderful place.

How long does it take for a lung cancer to cause symptoms?

It's not true. There are many different kinds of lung cancer. Some of them such as small cell lung cancer grow very quickly. Some adenocarcinomas grow very slowly and can show imperceptible changes on CT scan over a decade. Then again, some adenocarcinomas can grow and spread relatively quickly. It's a very broad bell curve.

Many lung cancers grow in locations that don't cause symptoms until they are large or until they have spread. The exceptions are those that when small erode a blood vessel causing bleeding. Having symptoms from lung cancer is generally a very bad sign and indicative of a cancer that is extensive.

That's why there are recommendations for smokers and recent former smokers to undergo lung cancer screening using a CT scan to detect cancers early allow surgery with a high rate of cure.

It is very difficult to tell exactly how long does it take for cancer to become detectable and cause symptoms. To give a perspective, 1 cm3 of cancer mass has almost 1 billion cells. The symptoms from cancer can depend on what structure the mass impinges on. If the mass affect the airway patient can complain of cough and shortness of breath etc.

Rough estimate would be 6-12 months for typical lung cancer but it's an estimate.

In my opinion, I do not think this is something that can be accurately measured. For one thing, it would be an ethical issue to allow a human subject to have an untreated cancer allowed to grow from Stage 1 to Stage 4 (when symptoms usually become detectable quite late) just to measure the timespan. And animal models would not be representative of the human experience as their physiology is not identical. To compound this issue, every patient is different. Every one.

As others have stated, symptoms usually don't show up in early stages and we have no real way of knowing how long a cancer took to grow, and relatively imprecise means of measuring monitored growth or shrinkage with a CT scan. (We can roughly measure dimensions in 2-D images but cannot accurately assess mass.) 

Because lung cancer is often detected by accident, and then treated immediately, it is almost irrelevant to ponder how quickly it grows. In the end,  no matter what flavor of lung cancer a patient has, the answer will be: too quickly.