In many cases lung cancer surgery can now be performed with a minimally invasive technique. This technique offers the patient a standard cancer operation with less postoperative discomfort, shorter hospital length of stay, and possibly a quicker return to normal activities than following the usual chest incision. Lung cancer affects approximately 180,000 Americans each year. It has become the number one cancer killer among men and women. Chemotherapy will provide some shrinkage of the tumor, but it does not cure lung cancer.
Radiation therapy can cure lung cancer and avoids the morbidity of an operation.
However, the cure rate for lung cancer treated with radiation therapy is very low. When a lung cancer is localized to the lung, surgery offers by far the best chance of a cure. The most common surgical procedure for lung cancer is called a lobectomy. The operation is aimed at taking out the tumor and that section of the lung in which the tumor arises. The standard lung cancer operation also involves removal of lymph nodes from multiple different areas inside the chest.