What are my options for lung cancer treatment?
Non-small cell lung cancer is also divided into various subtypes. Since it is slower growing, surgery may be an option if we catch the cancer earlier. Otherwise, we have other modalities which include chemotherapy with radiation therapy or chemotherapy alone. A newer exciting thing about non-small cell lung cancer is that we have various targeted therapies that are now approved by FDA for non-small cell lung cancer. • How is lung cancer staged and what are the survival rates? Lung cancer staging is based on the size of the tumor, whether it has spread to the lymph nodes or not, and whether it has gone to other parts of the body. Stage I is usually confined to the size of the tumor but once it has spread to the lymph nodes it has become Stage II or III. If it has gone to other parts of the body, it becomes Stage IV. The five year survival for Stage I varies. It may not be 100% but around 60 to 70%. For Stage IV, the five year survival becomes less than 5%. • Am I going to be gasping for
