Lung Cancer Treatments
Lung Cancer Treatments - Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
| Regardless of the extent of disease or stage, patients are seen and treatment options are discussed, and all forms of treatment are offered at Peter Mac, including curative, palliative (for pain or bleeding) and surveillance of cancer. The choice of treatment will depend on the type of lung cancer you have, whether the cancer has spread beyond the lung, whether your lungs are working properly, your general health, and what you want. |
| Surgery |
| If your cancer has not spread beyond the lungs, your general health is reasonably good and your breathing capacity is sufficient, the treatment gives the best chance of cure is surgery. The most common operation is called a lobectomy, removes the affected part of the lung. Sometimes, the whole lung needs to be removed and this is called a pneumonectomy. In patients with reduced lung function, smaller parts of the lung are removed to try to preserve breathing capacity. While these operations preserve breathing capacity, there is more likely to be a recurrence. Your doctor will advise you of the best operation for you. |
| Chemotherapy |
| This is the treatment of cancer with anti-cancer drugs. The aim is to destroy cancer cells while doing the least possible damage to normal cells. The drugs work by stopping cancer cells from multiplying. Chemotherapy is the treatment of choice for patients with small cell carcinoma. As this type of cancer spreads quickly, chemotherapy works well in treating it. Unfortunately, although the initial response is usually good, the cancer may come back (recurrent cancer) and be less sensitive to treatment. You may also have chemotherapy after surgery to remove the cancer, to increase the chance of cure. This is called ‘adjuvant’ chemotherapy. |
| Radiotherapy |
| Radiotherapy treats cancer by using radiation to destroy or inure cancer cells. The radiation can be targeted onto cancer sites in your body. Treatment is carefully planned to do as little harm as possible to your normal body tissue. Treatment is painless and may take only two to three minutes. Usually, radiotherapy is given as a number of treatments over a period of weeks. Normal tissues are less likely to be damaged using this method, which is called ‘fractionation’. Radiotherapy may be used to cure some early stage lung cancers. It may be used with chemotherapy to contain cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes. |
| More information on cancer treatments |
