Lung Cancer Treatment

During the surgical procedure, your surgeon tries to eliminate lung cancer and a healthy tissue margin. If you are undergoing surgery, your surgeon may also remove the lymph nodes from your chest to verify the signs of cancer. Surgical intervention can be an option if your cancer is limited to the lungs. 

Different surgical intervention for removing lung cancer consists of:

Lobectomy: This is the most frequently done surgery for lung cancer and this involves taking away the affected part of the lung.

Pneumonectomy: This is a surgery in which the entire lung on the side with the cancer is taken out.

Sleeve Resection: This is a complicated procedure that is used to save as many normal functional lungs as possible. Resection of the portion of the airway containing the cancer and some lung tissue is done. The remaining part of the airway is finally reattached to the remaining lung.

Segmental Lung Resection: In this surgery, which is conducted depending on the extent of the cancer, a part of the lobe or segment of the lung is removed. It is most commonly performed either to extract tissue for diagnosis or in patients who are too delicate to undergo surgery for cancer removal. 

Chest Wall Resection: In some cases, if the lung cancer involves the ribs or muscles of the chest,  it may require removal. It allows filling the chest defect with muscles as well as prosthetic material (i.e. bone cement or Titanium implants).

Robotic thoracic surgery is similar to other minimally invasive surgical procedures that are applied to patients requiring thoracic procedures for some forms of lung cancer. 

Robotic thoracic surgery could be applied in the elimination of the affected lung area and possibly the nearby lymph nodes. In robotic surgery, the actual surgeon only plays the role of a manager, and for the surgical procedure, he will sit by the side of the operation bed as the controller of the robotic surgical instruments.

These robotic instruments are placed by the doctor entirely at the command or console. During this surgery, the surgeon takes out some of the lung tissue through the incisions made. The use of a magnified view lets the surgeon perform precision cutting to get rid of the lung tissue and avoid making large injuries in the patient’s chest or rib cage.

The use of the Da Vinci surgical system, an efficient and minimally invasive alternative has made it possible to perform complex surgical procedures through a few small incisions with the help of a high-definition 3D vision system, and tiny instruments that can twist more than the human wrist. 

For patients undergoing da Vinci surgery, it often leads to smaller incisions, reduced pain levels, shorter hospitalization time as well a faster rate at which they return to their daily activities.

No robot is physically present. Your surgeon who has undergone extensive training using the da Vinci system will control every aspect of the surgery through this robotic platform. The accuracy that comes with these arms allows surgeons to perform intricate surgeries.

This procedure is beneficial as it helps in removing the affected lobe without removing the entire lung.

Total lung-parenchyma-sparing bronchoplasty (TLPSB) ( a procedure that does not disturb the enormous surface area of gas exchange in the lung) represents a breakthrough in surgery of low-grade malignant tumors and benign endobronchial ( inside the bronchi) diseases as compared to other types of lobectomy. Based on the concept of lung-sparing bronchoplasty, low-grade localized lung carcinomas, offer the best pathology for application.

Stereotactic body radiation therapy or radiotherapy (SBRT)  is defined as a highly focused form of radiation therapy that is used to treat several kinds of cancers. Usually, it is given for the first cancer (lung cancer or prostate cancer etc), but also for secondaries or another cancer that has appeared elsewhere in the body (metastatic cancer). Some of the common secondary cancers that can be treated with the help of SBRT include cancers located on the bone, the lung, or the liver.

This technique therefore works in a way that differs from other external beam radiation therapy in the manner that it delivers relatively higher doses to the cancer. 

These higher doses are delivered to the tissues from X-ray beams from sources outside the body and with a small number of treatments also known as fractions. Generally, one to five treatment sessions are required with frequencies ranging from daily to weekly, depending on the severity of the condition and the type of therapy.

Surgeons use the VATS technique for performing many procedures, such as:

•  For tissue removal to identify chest cancers, such as lung cancer or pleural mesothelioma,  (a cancer that affects the layer of tissue lining the lungs).
• Surgical interventions of the lung; including lung cancer surgery and lung volume reduction surgery.
• Methods used to get rid of and reduce the build-up of a substance, normally fluid or air, around the lungs.

Sometimes, after you have been operated on, you may be prescribed some chemotherapy as it is believed to wipe out remaining cancerous cells. Adjuvant chemotherapy is given before surgeries to lessen the size of the cancers so that they may be easily wiped out.

Drugs target cancerous cell markers since they are particular to cancer cells. In targeted therapy, specific molecules target mutated proteins or excessive proteins in cancerous cells.

Your immune system is the foundation of immunotherapy to fight cancer. Your body’s immune system that combats disease may not attack your cancer because cancer cells produce proteins that help them hide from immune system cells.

People with advanced local lung cancers can make use of Immunotherapy.

Supportive care also referred to as palliative care, is a medical specialty that involves working with a physician to minimize your signs and symptoms. Palliative care relieves the pain from the cancer and helps you live a better life.