Three Types

surgeryIn most cases, the goal of lung cancer surgery is to remove the entire tumor, including a small amount of normal tissue (about 2 centimetres, 0.8 in) at the margin. The general name for surgery that enters the chest is thoracotomy, and specific named types of surgical interventions may be performed as part of the thoracotomy, such as wedge resection, segmentectomy, sleeve resection", lobectomy, or pneumonectomy, depending on the tumor and patient characteristics.

RadiationRadiotherapy is often given together with chemotherapy, and may be used with curative intent in people with NSCLC who are not eligible for surgery. This form of high-intensity radiotherapy is called radical radiotherapy. A refinement of this technique is continuous hyper fractionated accelerated radiotherapy (CHART), in which a high dose of radiotherapy is given in a short time period.[Postoperative thoracic radiotherapy generally should not be used after curative intent surgery for NSCLC. Some people with mediastinal N2 lymph node involvement might benefit from post-operative radiotherapy.

Using drugs to block the growth and spread of cancer cells. The drugs can be pills you take or medicines given in your veins.