Surgery

There are several operations performed for lung cancer treatment, depending upon the type and severity of the disease.

Surgery for SCCA patients is performed at University of Washington Medical Center, by thoracic surgeons who are among the best surgeons in the country.

If your lungs are in otherwise good health, you can look forward to returning to normal activities even after a section or an entire lung is removed. However, if you have other medical problems, such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis--common among heavy smokers--this may complicate your recovery.

Lobectomy

This is a surgical procedure in which a single lobe of the lung is removed. This is the most common lung cancer surgery.

Pneumonectomy

In a pneumonectomy, an entire lung is removed. The size or location of your cancer may make this surgery necessary, rather than a lobectomy.

Segmentectomy and Wedge Resection

A segmentectomy or a wedge resection is sometimes used to treat lung cancer in people whose lungs are too weak to tolerate the more radical surgeries. In this procedure, only the tumor and a small amount of surrounding lung tissue are removed.

Advanced Surgical Procedures

Some patients have a cancer that is in a bad location in relation to other important anatomy in the chest. Lung cancers may involve the rib cage, major blood vessels, the main air passages, or other structures near the heart. Often these patients will be told that they cannot have surgery, or that surgery is “too risky,” but the thoracic surgeons at SCCA have some of the most extensive experience in the world in removing these more complex lung cancers.

Some of the procedures performed for these complex cancers are:

Sleeve lobectomy
Carinal pneumonectomy
Vascular reconstruction
Chest wall resection and reconstruction

Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS)