Role of chemotherapy for palliation in the lung cancer patient.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States and presents with a constellation of common, often persistent, and severe symptoms. Chemotherapy is well known to impart a survival benefit; however, the benefit of chemotherapy for relief of lung cancer symptoms has been slow to gain recognition. Tumor-related symptoms such as pain, cough, and dyspnea are improved, along with constitutional symptoms such as fatigue and overall quality of life, sometimes even after failure of previous regimens. The efficacy of chemotherapy for the relief of symptoms and improvement in quality of life makes these drugs a fundamental part of palliative care.