The treatment that is prescribed for lung cancer will have to be determined by the severity of the condition and also by what type of cancer it is. If the cancer is contained, then all it might take is surgery and a course of drugs after that. However, if it has spread, then the treatment might be more complex. Then it would depend on where the cancer is located and to which parts of the body it has spread.
The first step is the diagnosis and this is done with scans. While tumors and masses show up in these tests, one cannot be absolutely sure whether or not it is lung cancer unless a biopsy is performed. Samples are collected either by inserting a thin needle through the chest into the lungs, or by passing a thin tube down the mouth to the lungs or by making a slit in the throat and putting in a tube.
In non-small cell lung cancer, very often there’s a mass which does not spread so what it calls for is surgery. This will mean either the mass being surgically removed or a portion of the lung being removed. Even if a whole lung is removed, you can still survive with just one lung. This kind of cancer is hard to cure but doctors will try and prolong your life as much as they can.
However, in the case of cancer that has spread, there may have to be a combined treatment with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. This usually happens with small cell lung cancer and in many cases, because of a battery of various lines of treatment, there are chances of it being contained and even cured.
There are a few things that you could watch out for when you are going through the process of diagnosis and treatment. For example, if you were undergoing a CT scan, you are exposed to a small amount of radiation and this might result in a bit of itching and hives which tend to go away in a day or two. Some physicians might ask you to go through an MRI instead which does not involve the use of radiation. If you go through a PET screening, you will have to take radioactive drugs for the images to be seen with a greater degree of clarity.
Once the diagnosis has been made, the doctor will recommend a course of action which could involve surgery, radiation and chemotherapy as well as a course of drugs. Today, there are specific targeted drugs which facilitate the medication going straight to the area of infection. This also means that patients suffer a lot less discomfort than they used to do. New age drugs and treatments have come to mean less nausea, sometimes nothing at all and fewer chances of hair fall.
There is a new therapy today called PDT or photodynamic therapy where just before surgery, a photosynthesizing agent is introduced into the body. This is of great use when the cancer can be reached by light because the area targeted lights up and it can be treated very precisely. Also newly introduced is RFA or radiofrequency ablation where electrical or radiofrequency energy is used with the help of a needle inserted into the site of the cancer to destroy the cells.
Very often, patients will be given the option to choose which therapy or combination of therapies they would like, with the pros and cons of each explained to them.