Mercy Cardiothoracic Surgical Associates

Lung Cancer

Patients diagnosed with lung cancer have several surgical options depending on the type and staging of the cancer. Surgery may be recommended to help your physicians determine what type of lung cancer you have or to remove the cancer if it is only in one lung or in a lung and nearby lymph nodes. Surgery is typically recommended as the most effective treatment for early stage non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer. Lung cancer can be detected, diagnosed and staged by:

• physical exam
• lab tests (including tissue, blood, and urine samples)
• chest x-ray
• CT (computerized tomography)scan
• PET (positron emission tomography) scan
• Sputum cytology
• Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy
• bronchoscopy
• thoracoscopy
• thoracentesis

If the cancer is in a more advanced stage, surgery is typically accompanied by radiation and/or chemotherapy. Our surgeons specialize in:

• Surgery for lung cancer (multimodality approach)
  Lung cancer surgery as part of a multi-modality approach involves surgery and other therapies such as chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. This approach is typically prescribed for patients with locally and/or regionally advanced lung cancer. The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) has found that a tailored, multi-modality approach to patient treatment results in increased patient survival rates as compared to single-agent therapies.
   
• Video-assisted lung resection
  Generally patients recommended for resection surgery have stage I, II, or III lung tumors. During video-assisted lung resection surgeons insert a small camera into a patient’s chest cavity through a small tube inserted through an incision to examine and remove a portion of affected lung.