Treatment Options

Today, men and women facing lung cancer have more treatment options than they did even a few years ago. These new treatments have significantly increased survival rates for people with lung cancer.

Everyone's cancer is different, as are their circumstances, preferences and beliefs. A treatment that works well for someone else may not be right for you.

Two cancer types
There are two types of lung cancer, small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Small cell lung cancer tends to be a more aggressive cancer that spreads very early.

The treatment your doctors recommend will depend on the type of lung cancer you have, how far the disease has progressed, and other factors, such as your general health.

If you have not already had a biopsy, your doctors will do one to gather information about your cancer that will help them make decisions about your treatment. Tissue samples from your cancer will be removed and examined by a pathologist.

These tests will show whether your cancer is likely to grow slowly or quickly, whether it is likely to recur, and whether it is likely to respond to certain types of treatment. This testing allows doctors to "stage" your disease, and the stage of the cancer guides decisions about treatment.

Standard treatment

Most people who have small cell lung cancer will be treated with chemotherapy or radiation, or both.

For people with non-small cell lung cancer, the standard treatment includes surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Follow-up after treatment
As part of the Survivorship Program at SCCA, a clinic has been developed for general medical oncology survivors treated with conventional therapy. This clinic is the Medical Oncology Survivorship Team (MOST). For more information about the MOST program, click here.

New treatments and clinical trials
New treatments like VATS (video-assisted thoracic surgery), a new, less invasive surgery, are available to SCCA patients through the high-caliber surgeons and physicians who work at SCCA and its partner, UW Medical Center.

Lung cancer patients at SCCA also have access to clinical trials for new treatment options being researched across the country and at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. More information can be found here.

The Cancer Profiler
For more information about a type and stage of cancer, please try the The Cancer Profiler, a free decision support tool brought to you by the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) and NexCura, Inc. The Cancer Profiler enables cancer patients and their physicians to make better informed treatment decisions using information from evidence-based, peer-reviewed medical literature.

Cancer Profiler - Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Cancer Profiler - Small Cell Lung Cancer

More information on treatment options:

• Surgery
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation therapy

October 2006