Treatment for Lung Cancer
The treatment for lung cancer is dependent upon the type it is and what stage it is in. Different types and different stages are handled according to what is needed for each. It also depends on what condition the patient is in physically. The options include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination of these treatments. For some patients, a clinical trial may work.
Lung surgery is performed by thoracic surgeons along with a team that is specialized and highly skilled. If a patient has non-small cell lung cancer where it has not spread away from the chest, that patient can usually be treated by surgery successfully.
Using surgery for the treatment of lung cancer has several forms. These are:
* Mediastinoscopy which is a minimally invasive method of sampling the lymph nodes located on the main airway to check for the spread of a tumor.
* Thoracospy is also minimally invasive. It is done to access the chest to diagnose and treat the cancer. There are small incisions made to do this. Another name for it is VATS or video-assisted thoracic surgery.
* Wedge resection is the removal of a small part of one lung.
* Segmentectomy is the removal of part of a lobe from one lung.
* Lobectomy is the removal of a whole lobe from one lung. This is the most common type of surgical treatment of lung cancer.
* Sleeve resection involves removing a portion of the airway with or with adjoining the lung, and then reattaching the ends remaining to maintain tissue of the lung.
* Pneumonectomy is the removal of a lung.
When radiation treatments are used to treat lung cancer, external beam radiation is used first. A patient who is given this type of radiation does not become radioactive. This therapy will be prescribed and monitored by a radiation oncologist. The radiation oncologist will work with the patient to design the best plan of radiation for that particular patient.
Another in line for treatment of lung cancer is chemotherapy. This can include many different drugs. They can be administered by mouth, or intravenously depending on which drugs are used. A medical oncologist prescribes the chemotherapy, which may help the radiation be more effective. The doctor and patient works together to decide the best course of treatment that will be most effective and most easily tolerated by the patient.
Whatever course of action for treatment that is used will need to be decided upon by the oncologist. The best way for success is if the patient and doctor are working together in a co-operative way.
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