Lung Cancer
Your Personalized Treatment Plan
Do not limit your treatment options only to the nearest hospital.
We offer the most effective, quick and affordable treatment for lung cancer,
thanks to the world’s largest hospital network.
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Lung cancer is a disease caused by uncontrolled cell division in your lungs. Your cells divide and make more copies of themselves as a part of their normal function. But sometimes, they get changes (mutations) that cause them to keep making more of themselves when they shouldn’t. Damaged cells dividing uncontrollably create masses, or tumors, of tissue that eventually keep your organs from working properly.
Lung cancer is the name for cancers that start in your lungs — usually in the airways (bronchi or bronchioles) or small air sacs (alveoli). Cancers that start in other places and move to your lungs are usually named for where they start (your doctor may refer to this as cancer that’s metastatic to your lungs).
Complete Recovery
No Hidden Fees
No Waiting Lists
Leading Surgeons
Private treatment in our hospital network allows you skip waiting lists while at the same time reducing the costs treatment considerably, up to 50% cheaper, in countries that are just a short flight from home. The countries listed below make excellent choices with modern hospitals and well-trained English speaking surgeons.
Our medical consultants will advise you on the best choice for treating your lung cancer in one of our leading hospitals. We will evaluate your current condition, expectations and other related factors, and offer you the most suitable option, respecting your health and the individual needs of your body and lifestyle. Your health is unique and so should be your solution.
- Berlin
- Zurich
- Vienna
- Paris
- Madrid
- Milan
- Warsaw
- Istanbul
Treatment of Lung Cancer
Treatments for lung cancer are designed to get rid of cancer in your body or slow down its growth. Treatments can remove cancerous cells, help to destroy them or keep them from multiplying or teach your immune system to fight them. Some therapies are also used to reduce symptoms and relieve pain. Your treatment will depend on the type of lung cancer you have, where it is, how far it’s spread and many other factors.
What medications/treatments are used in lung cancer?
Lung cancer treatments include surgery, radiofrequency ablation, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted drug therapy and immunotherapy.
Surgery
NSCLC that hasn’t spread and SCLC that’s limited to a single tumor can be eligible for surgery. Your surgeon might remove the tumor and a small amount of healthy tissue around it to make sure they don’t leave any cancer cells behind. Sometimes they have to remove all or part of your lung (resection) for the best chance that the cancer won’t come back.
Radiofrequency ablation
NSCLC tumors near the outer edges of your lungs are sometimes treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). RFA uses high-energy radio waves to heat and destroy cancer cells.
Radiation therapy
Radiation uses high energy beams to kill cancer cells. It can be used by itself or to help make surgery more effective. Radiation can also be used as palliative care, to shrink tumors and relieve pain. It’s used in both NSCLC and SCLC.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is often a combination of multiple medications designed to stop cancer cells from growing. It can be given before or after surgery or in combination with other types of medication, like immunotherapy. Chemotherapy for lung cancer is usually given through an IV.
Targeted drug therapy
In some people with NSCLC, lung cancer cells have specific changes (mutations) that help the cancer grow. Special drugs target these mutations to try to slow down or destroy cancer cells. Other drugs, called angiogenesis inhibitors, can keep the tumor from creating new blood vessels, which the cancer cells need to grow.
Immunotherapy
Our bodies usually recognize cells that are damaged or harmful and destroy them. Cancer has ways to hide from the immune system to keep from being destroyed. Immunotherapy reveals cancer cells to your immune system so your own body can fight cancer.
Treatments to ease symptoms (palliative care)
Some lung cancer treatments are used to relieve symptoms, like pain and difficulty breathing. These include therapies to reduce or remove tumors that are blocking airways, and procedures to remove fluid from around your lungs and keep it from coming back.
Complications of Lung Cancer
Complications
Types
Causes
Symptoms
Diagnosis
Staging
Complications
More than half of lung cancer patients die within one year of diagnosis without treatment. For any hope of survival, medical or surgical treatment is necessary.
Life expectancy after being diagnosed with lung cancer depends on the stage of the cancer at the time of diagnosis, as well as a person’s age, their overall health, and whether they have other medical conditions. Once the cancer has spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body the survival rate is much lower. Lung cancer is often not detected until it has spread.
Life expectancy for cancers is typically expressed as a 5-year survival rate (the percent of patients who will be alive 5 years after diagnosis). Overall, the 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is lower than other cancers, at 18.6%. The lung cancer 5-year survival rate is 56% when the cancer is detected while the disease is still localized in the lungs. Once the lung cancer has spread, the 5-year survival rate drops to just 5%.
Types
There are many cancers that affect the lungs, but we usually use the term “lung cancer” for two main kinds: non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer.
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer. It accounts for over 80% of lung cancer cases. Common types include adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Adenosquamous carcinoma and sarcomatoid carcinoma are two less common types of NSCLC.
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC)
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) grows more quickly and is harder to treat than NSCLC. It’s often found as a relatively small lung tumor that’s already spread to other parts of your body. Specific types of SCLC include small cell carcinoma (also called oat cell carcinoma) and combined small cell carcinoma.
Other types of cancer in the lungs
Other types of cancer can start in or around your lungs, including lymphomas (cancer in your lymph nodes), sarcomas (cancer in your bones or soft tissue) and pleural mesothelioma (cancer in the lining of your lungs). These are treated differently and usually aren’t referred to as lung cancer.
Causes
Lung cancer is caused by cells that keep dividing even though they shouldn’t. While cell division is a normal process, all cells have a built-in off switch that keeps them from dividing into more cells (senescence) or causes them to die off (apoptosis) when necessary. The off switch is triggered when a cell has divided too many times or has too many changes (mutations).
Cancer cells are normal cells in your body that have gained mutations that remove the off switch. Cells keep multiplying, unchecked, and interfere with your normal cells. Cancer cells can get into your bloodstream or lymph nodes and move to other places in your body, spreading the damage.
We’re not sure what causes these changes that lead to cancer in some people and not others, but certain factors, including smoking tobacco products, can put you at higher risk for damage to your cells that can cause lung cancer.
While there are many factors that can increase your risk of lung cancer, smoking any kind of tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars or pipes is the biggest single risk factor. Experts estimate that 80% of lung cancer deaths are smoking-related.
Other risk factors include:
- Being exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke.
- Being exposed to harmful substances, like air pollution, radon, asbestos, uranium, diesel exhaust, silica, coal products and others.
- Having previous radiation treatments to your chest (for instance, for breast cancer or lymphoma).
- Having a family history of lung cancer.
Symptoms
Most lung cancer symptoms look similar to other, less serious illnesses. Many people don’t have symptoms until the disease is advanced, but some people have symptoms in the early stages. For those who do experience symptoms, it may only be one or a few of these:
- A cough that doesn’t go away or gets worse over time.
- Trouble breathing or shortness of breath (dyspnea).
- Chest pain or discomfort.
- Wheezing.
- Coughing up blood (hemoptysis).
- Hoarseness.
- Loss of appetite.
- Unexplained weight loss.
- Unexplained fatigue (tiredness).
- Shoulder pain.
- Swelling in the face, neck, arms or upper chest (superior vena cava syndrome).
- Small pupil and drooping eyelid in one eye with little or no sweating on that side of your face (Horner’s syndrome).
Diagnosis
Diagnosing lung cancer can be a multi-step process. Your first visit to a healthcare provider will usually involve them listening to your symptoms, asking you about your health history and performing a physical exam (like listening to your heart and lungs). Since lung cancer symptoms are similar to many other, more common illnesses, you provider may start by getting blood tests and a chest X-ray.
If your provider suspects you could have lung cancer, your next steps in diagnosis would usually involve more imaging tests, like a CT scan, and then a biopsy. Other tests include using a PET/CT scan to see if cancer has spread, and tests of cancerous tissue from a biopsy to help determine the best kind of treatment.
Staging
Cancer is usually staged based on the size of the initial tumor, how far or deep into the surrounding tissue it goes, and whether it’s spread to lymph nodes or other organs. Each type of cancer has its own guidelines for staging.
Lung cancer staging
Each stage has several combinations of size and spread that can fall into that category. For instance, the primary tumor in a Stage III cancer could be smaller than in a Stage II cancer, but other factors put it at a more advanced stage. The general staging for lung cancer is:
- Stage 0 (in-situ): Cancer is in the top lining of the lung or bronchus. It hasn’t spread to other parts of the lung or outside of the lung.
- Stage I: Cancer hasn’t spread outside the lung.
- Stage II: Cancer is larger than Stage I, has spread to lymph nodes inside the lung, or there’s more than one tumor in the same lobe of the lung.
- Stage III: Cancer is larger than Stage II, has spread to nearby lymph nodes or structures or there’s more than one tumor in a different lobe of the same lung.
- Stage IV: Cancer has spread to the other lung, the fluid around the lung, the fluid around the heart or distant organs.
