There are a number of lung cancer treatment options that researchers have discovered and developed throughout the years. Depending on a patient’s personal choice or the stage of his or her cancer, a practitioner will help choose the treatment that will help provide the best outcome.
In patients who have non-small-cell lung cancer, physicians often perform surgery to remove tumorous growths from the lungs. The size of the contained growths determines whether the surgeon will remove lobes, small sections, or the entire lung. This option can be coupled with other treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, which can reduce the size of tumors prior to surgery or eradicate cancerous cells after tumor removal.
Additionally, patients can explore targeted drug treatments that focus on specific elements of cancer cells. For example, Bevacizumab prevents a tumor from creating the blood vessels that facilitate growth, while Crizonitib blocks a cancer cell’s ability to develop and spread throughout the body.
Physicians often recommend clinical trial participation to many patients who see little to no results from other forms of treatment. This unique regimen of care offers a variety of experimental procedures to patients. While they do not always guarantee results, clinical trials can help cancer researchers learn and improve treatment options.