| Treatment options for lung cancer patients are getting better every day – there are more options now than ever before. Mount Carmel offers genetic testing of your tumor to determine which treatments will work for you, as well as access to clinical trials (voluntary participation in research studies). Your lung care team will work with you to treat your cancer aggressively and compassionately.
There are two primary forms of treatment for lung cancers:
Surgery – Surgery is the preferred treatment for early stage non small cell lung cancer. Whether or not you are a candidate for surgery is determined by the size of the tumor, the tumor's location, whether or not the disease has spread and your overall health at the time of diagnosis.
- VATS - A VATS (Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery) procedure enables your surgeon to see inside your chest cavity using a small camera inserted through very small incisions and to remove lung masses. Surgery is the preferred treatment if you have early stage, non-small-cell lung cancer. This procedure is uses general anesthesia and requires a hospital stay of 3-5 days.
- Thoracotomy - When a tumor cannot be reached via brochoscopy, surgery can be the only way to remove a sample. During surgery, as much of of the tumor as possible is removed and sent to the lab for analysis. A thoracotomy is a major surgical procedure that requires several days in the hospital and weeks or months of recovery.
Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy – For patients with inoperable non-small-cell lung cancers, small-cell lung cancer or who are not candidates for surgery, chemotherapy and radiation can be used to shrink tumors, relieve symptoms and, in some cases, even provide a cure.
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