Worldwide, lung cancer is the 2nd most commonly diagnosed cancer. While statistics show that the number of people diagnosed with lung cancer is reducing, they also suggest that in 2023, approximately 238,340 adults in the US will be diagnosed with this horrible disease.
Thankfully, there are some brilliant treatment options available for people diagnosed with lung cancer. These treatments can help to improve your chances of survival. This is particularly true if your cancer is diagnosed in the early stages. If you’ve been diagnosed with lung cancer and want to know the available treatment options, check out the guide below. Of course, the type of treatment available to you will depend on the stage of the disease and where the cancer is located:
1. Surgery
There are three main types of lung cancer surgery:
- Segmentectomy or wedge resection – a small part of the lung is removed during this procedure. This option is only available to a few patients and can only be performed if your cancer is small.
- Pneumonectomy – a pneumonectomy involves removing the entire lung. This procedure will be suggested if your cancer has spread throughout the lung or is in the center of the lung.
- Lobectomy – in this type of surgery, one of the significant parts of your lung (the lobe) is removed. You may be offered this option if your cancer is in just one section of one of your lungs.
2. Radiotherapy
If you cannot have surgery, a doctor may suggest treating your cancer with radiotherapy. Radiotherapy uses radiation and pulses to destroy cancer cells. As well as this, it can also be used to control any unpleasant symptoms such as pain and coughing up blood. Almost all lung cancer patients can use this type of treatment.
3. Chemotherapy
Most cancer patients will be offered chemotherapy as part of their treatment plan. Chemotherapy uses powerful cancer-killing medicines to treat and kill cancer. This type of treatment can be given in pill form, through an intravenous drip, or as a mixture of the two.
4. Immunotherapy
Over the last few years, we’ve seen the introduction of a new treatment for lung cancer – immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is a collection of medicines that rouse your immune system to target and destroy cancer cells. This treatment is often used alongside chemotherapy to destroy the cells quickly.
5. Targeted Therapies
Targeted therapies are medicines devised to reduce the spread of advanced non-small cell lung cancers. This type of therapy is only suitable for people with a specific protein in their cancer cells.
Unfortunately, evidence shows that targeted therapies are not successful with all forms of cancer. This is particularly true of KRAS cells. However, there is promise for the future. Scientists believe they can use the H358 tumor model cells to understand better how to treat this type of cancer. Although this isn’t helpful yet, they hope to use the information they collect to find new treatments for people with this type of cancer.
While most people diagnosed with lung cancer survive, it remains the leading killer in terms of cancers in both men and women in the US. One of the main reasons for this is that this type of cancer can be hard to detect, meaning it is often not spotted until it is more advanced. Because of this, we must do everything possible to detect this type of cancer early.
