A Patient with Lung Cancer Who Is Scheduled to Begin

question 50

Multiple Choice

A patient with lung cancer who is scheduled to begin a course of radiation therapy asks the nurse,"How will they know if I'm cured?" The nurse's best response is based on which understanding of the disease process?

• A) Lung cancer is never a curable disease; prolonged life is the goal.
• B) Eighty percent of lung cancers are curable with radiation therapy.
• C) Radiation in lung cancer is most often used to increase comfort, not cure disease.
• D) Radiation therapy reduces inflammation; chemotherapy is used to shrink the tumor.

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Definitions:

Sensation

The process of detecting physical stimuli from the environment and translating them into neural signals that can be interpreted by the brain.

Wavelength

The distance between successive peaks of a wave, often used in the context of light, sound, and electromagnetic waves.

Hue

A color or shade in the spectrum, defined by its dominant wavelength.

Brightness

A visual perception that describes how light or dark a color appears; can also refer to the intensity of light.