1. Surgical Interventions for Lung Cancer
The specific type of surgery your oncologist will recommend depends on the stage your lung cancer has reached. Surgery is usually recommended only for large cell lung tumors that are still in stage 1 or 2 of development, meaning they haven't yet made their way into adjacent body tissues.
Your doctor will introduce you to one or more of the three major types of lung cancer surgeries. The least invasive is a wedge resection, which removes only a small part of the affected lung. A lobectomy removes a complete lung lobe affected by a tumor, and sometimes a full pneumonectomy is required. A pneumonectomy is the surgical term for the complete removal of an entire lung.
2. Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy
Chemotherapy and radiation will usually be combined to treat a small cell cancer that's affecting only a limited area of your lung. If the cancer's spread is wider, radiation may be omitted and chemotherapy used in combination with more aggressive treatments, including participation in a clinical trial.
For non-small cell lung cancers, drug and radiation treatments are usually used only when the tumor has advanced to stage 3 or beyond. These treatments, especially chemotherapy, may be used solely to help ease the symptoms you'll be dealing with in advanced-stage lung cancer.
3. Use New Targeted Drug Therapies
New drug treatments are available to lung cancer patients and are usually used only when a patient doesn't respond to traditional chemotherapy. One, called bevacizumab, inhibits the growth of blood vessels that deliver an oxygen supply to growing tumors.
Erlotinib is another new medicine that attempts to stop the cancerous tumor's growth by blocking out the brain signals that tell the cancer cell to divide. It's usually used on advanced-stage or recurring cancers.
4. The Potential of Clinical Trial Participation
If your case of lung cancer just doesn't seem to be responding to treatment, or if it has reached an inoperable stage but you still want to try and fight it, talk to your doctor about taking part in a clinical trial.
At a clinical trial, you may be introduced to newly developed treatment techniques that haven't yet been tested on human patients or that have an unquantified effect on cancerous growths. Discuss the risks with your doctor before signing on to participate, since these clinical trials can pose risks to the patients. Unpredictable side effects can occur with experimental therapies.
5. Palliative Care Helps You Cope
The sad reality is that lung cancer is very complicated and difficult to treat, and it's often terminal. Palliative care (also known as hospice care) can help you cope with this devastating news and help you stay comfortable and supported as you face the final leg of your fight. The goal of palliative care is to treat your symptoms rather than the cancer itself, so that you can live out the rest of your life without suffering through difficult treatment side effects.
