How is early stage non-small lung cancer treated?
Non-small cell lung cancer constitutes about 80% of the lung cancer cases and are known as a kind of epithelial lung cancer. Patients at the early stages of non-small cell lung cancer have several types of treatment. The early stage of non small cell lung cancer is usually treated by surgery alone or followed by adjuvant chemotherapy if required.
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Surgery
Surgery is known to be the standard form of treatment for early stage non small cell lung cancer. The surgeries performed usually are a lobectomy (procedure of choice), which is the procedure of removing the affected lobe, a pneumonectomy, which is the removal of the entire affected lung and along with this a mediastinal lymph node dissection is also done.
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Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is generally given to patients at stage 2 and is also given to few patients who are at the 1b stage. Chemotherapy is given to reduce the rate of recurrence and micrometastasis.
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Radiation
Radiation is generally administered on patients who are unfit for surgery and whose surgical resection specimen shows positive margins.
Read more on staging of non-small cell lung cancer
