So, why would surgery for lung cancer be unnecessary or futile?
With the traditional diagnostic tools of x-ray and MRI, doctors have been unable to clearly assess the stage of the lung cancer. If it is considered that the cancer is in its early stages and has not spread outside the lung, surgery is the best option for successful removal of the tumor. Unfortunately, what often happens is that, during surgery, it is discovered that the cancer had spread more than was estimated, and therefore cannot be removed by the surgery. In these cases, the surgery was futile. It also happens that, during surgery, the mass seen in the standard tests is actually benign or non-cancerous. A benign tumor doesn’t need to be removed because it is harmless, or at the very least, could have been treated with medication, so this surgery was unnecessary. These reasons are behind the research into PET scans lung cancer.
