Skip to content
WebMD: Better information. Better health.
 
Other search tools:Symptoms|Doctors|Medical Dictionary

Lung Cancer Health Center

Select An Article
Font Size
A
A
A

Lung Cancer Surgery

Surgery

Surgery is the preferred treatment for patients with early stage NSCLC. Unfortunately, 60-80% of all patients who have advanced or metastatic disease are not suitable for surgery.

  • People who have NSCLC that has not spread can tolerate surgery provided they have adequate lung function.

  • A portion of a lobe, a full lobe, or an entire lung may be removed. The extent of removal depends on the size of the tumor, its location, and how far it has spread.

  • A technique called cryosurgery is sometimes used for NSCLC. In cryosurgery, the tumor is frozen, which destroys it. This treatment is mainly for relief of fatigue.

  • Cure rates for small peripheral cancers are around 80%.

  • Despite complete surgical removal, a large proportion of patients with early stage cancer have recurrence of cancer and die from it.

Surgery is not widely used in SCLC. Because SCLC spreads widely and rapidly through the body, removing it all by surgery is usually impossible.

Recommended Related to Lung Cancer

General Information

"Selected Vegetables" and "Sun's Soup" are names given to several different mixtures of vegetables and herbs that have been studied as treatments for cancer and other medical conditions, including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.[1,2,3,4,5] The original formulation contained shiitake mushroom (Lentinus edodes [Berk.] Singer), mung bean (Phaseolus radiatus L.), Hedyotis diffusa Willd. (also known by the Chinese herbal name Bai Hua She She Cao), and barbat skullcap (Scutellaria barbata D. Don,...

Read the General Information article > >

An operation for lung cancer is major surgery. Many people experience pain, weakness, fatigue, and shortness of breath after surgery. Most have problems moving around, coughing, and breathing deeply. The recovery period can be several weeks or even months.

WebMD Medical Reference from eMedicineHealth

Reviewed on August 10, 2005
Next Article:

WebMD Special Sections