Lung Cancer

Treatment

The treatment options for lung cancer include:

• Surgery: Surgery is considered the preferred treatment for early-stage lung cancers. This intervention is also implemented in combination with other therapies, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy, in patients with advanced lung cancer. There are several types of lung cancer surgeries. These are:
• Lobectomy: There are five lobes in the liver. During the procedure, your oncosurgeon removes the entire lobe that’s affected by cancer.
• Wedge resection: This surgery is also called lobe preservation surgery. During the procedure, only a particular lobe section is removed, sparing the remaining part of the lobe. This surgery is preferred in patients with reduced lung function.
• Pneumonectomy: Depending on the diagnosis, sometimes patients may have to undergo complete lung removal. It is performed when cancer invades most parts of the lung.
• Video-assisted thoracic surgery: The surgery is also known as thoracoscopy. The technique is used in the treatment of early-stage lung cancers. It is a minimally invasive surgery that results in fewer complications and shorter hospital stay.
• Robotic surgery: Robotic surgery involves using robotic arms, a console, and a monitor for performing the surgery. Robotic surgery ensures surgery with high precision and accuracy. As a result, the patients experience fewer complications.
• Radiation therapy: In patients with early-stage cancer or cancer limited to the lungs, radiation therapy may be used before or after the surgery. If the surgery is not viable, radiation therapy is combined with chemotherapy (chemoradiation therapy). Radiation therapy may also help relieve the symptoms in patients with advanced cancer as a part of palliative care.
• Stereotactic radiotherapy: During stereotactic radiation therapy, the radiations are focused on the tumor from different angles. It allows radiation therapists to deliver higher doses of radiation with minimal side effects. This technique may be used in patients with metastatic lung cancer disease in organs such as the brain. It is also a treatment option for patients with lung cancer not eligible for surgery.
• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy may also be an option for managing lung cancer. It may be used before or after the surgery. It is combined with radiation therapy in lung cancer when the patient is not eligible for surgery, like radiation therapy. Chemotherapy is also used during palliative care to lower side effects in patients with advanced cancer.
• Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy is the use of medicines to help a person's own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells more effectively. The drugs delivered as a part of immunotherapy make cancer cells more vulnerable to immune system damage.
• Targeted therapy: There are certain proteins, enzymes, or other chemicals present in the cancer cells that are essential for their growth, division, and spread. Targeted therapy blocks the action of these chemicals, thereby damaging cancer cells. Before targeted therapy, the cancer cells are evaluated in the laboratory to determine the efficacy of targeted therapy against them.
• Radiofrequency ablation: This technique is used in patients with small lung tumors. The technique involves guiding a probe to the tumor and heating it through high-energy radio waves. The generated heat kills the cancer cells.