Lung cancer and its treatment can lead to other health problems. You may need comfort care to prevent or control these problems.

Comfort care is available both during and after treatment. It can improve your quality of life.

Your health care team can tell you more about the following problems and how to control them:

• Pain: Your doctor or a pain control specialist can suggest ways to relieve or reduce pain. More information about pain control can be found in the NCI booklet Pain Control.
  
  
• Shortness of breath or trouble breathing: People with lung cancer often have trouble breathing. Your doctor may refer you to a lung specialist or respiratory therapist. Some people are helped by oxygen therapy, photodynamic therapy, laser surgery, cryotherapy, or stents.
  
  
• Fluid in or around lungs: Advanced cancer can cause fluid to collect in or around the lungs. The fluid can make it hard to breathe. Your health care team can remove fluid when it builds up. In some cases, a procedure can be done that may prevent fluid from building up again. Some people may need chest tubes to drain the fluid.
  
  
• Pneumonia: You may have chest x-rays to check for lung infections. Your doctor can treat infections.
  
  
• Cancer that spreads to the brain: Lung cancer can spread to the brain. The symptoms may include headache, seizures, trouble walking, and problems with balance. Medicine to relieve swelling, radiation therapy, or sometimes surgery can help.
  
  People with small cell lung cancer may receive radiation therapy to the brain to try to prevent brain tumors from forming. This is called prophylactic cranial irradiation.
  
  
• Cancer that spreads to the bone: Lung cancer that spreads to the bone can be painful and can weaken bones. You can ask for pain medicine, and the doctor may suggest external radiation therapy. Your doctor also may give you drugs to help lower your risk of breaking a bone.
  
  
• Sadness and other feelings: It's normal to feel sad, anxious, or confused after a diagnosis of a serious illness. Some people find it helpful to talk about their feelings. See the "Sources of Support" section for more information.

You can get information about comfort care on NCI's Web site at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping and from NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER or LiveHelp.

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