Early lung cancer treatment

For patients with stage I non small cell lung cancer, the great news is it’s often curable. Use of surgery to remove that part of the lung or focused radiation to the tumor both demonstrate wonderful long term survival rates. Independently, both treatments allow over 70% of patients to still be alive 12 years later. And many of those who don’t, pass away of their other diseases.

That’s the great news.

The “problem” occurs when a person with stage I lung cancer has to choose between the two treatments. If a person is not healthy enough for surgery, then the decision is easy as their only possible treatment is radiation. However for healthier patients, we don’t know which treatment might be better for each patient given their unique situations. Thankfully, the Veteran’s Administration is doing a clinical study called VALOR to answer this exact question.

Surgery: A thoracic surgeon will remove the lung cancer and the lung that corresponds to the anatomical location where the tumor resides. There is always a question of why so much lung have to be removed? Ideally, the least amount of lung possible is removed to ensure that all of the tumor is removed. The use of pre-operative lung tests will confirm that the lung removed is safe.

Radiation: Called Stereotactic Body Radiation Treatment (SBRT), the radiation oncologist plans a strategy to overlap beams of radiation at the tumor to destroy it. Utilizing the efforts of a physicist, they ensure radiation is optimized at the tumor and minimized at other body parts that don’t do well with radiation.

The question of which treatment is better for a patient is best made by meeting both the thoracic surgeon and the radiation oncologist. Both treatments have unique side effects that could, but don’t always happen. Remember that there is no right or wrong answer. There is only a decision that has to be made using all of the information available to the patient. This is why it makes sense to ask every question to the experts who will assist the patient in beating lung cancer.