Understanding Lung Cancer Treatment
- Singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, 82, is said to be recovering well after having surgery prompted by an MRI that detected an early-stage cancerous area in his left lung. The spot was found after he experienced several weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse.
- Doctors do not believe the cancer has spread, Manilow has explained, and he’s expected to move forward without chemotherapy or radiation during his period of recovery.
- Lung cancer often doesn’t cause symptoms until it has already spread outside the lungs, making it harder to catch in its early stages.
- Treating lung cancer depends on the cancer’s location and how advanced it is. Treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy, or a combination of these treatments.
- Lung cancer surgery options for non-small cell lung cancer in its early stages include wedge resection (where a piece of the lung is removed) and a lobectomy or segmentectomy (removal of a lung segment). The risk of recurrence still exists even if the surgery is successful.
- Advancements in treatment for patients in both early and later stages exist thanks to immunotherapy (which uses the body’s immune system to help fight the cancer) and targeted therapy, which targets specific cancers with drugs or other treatments designed to attack them.
The 82-year-old singer-songwriter, known for his hits “Mandy” and “Copacabana,” who hasn’t offered specifics into his diagnosis, posted a photo of himself on Instagram on January 2nd, wearing a hospital gown, writing, “Better Today!”
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Fans responded to his post by sending well wishes and expressing hope for what lies ahead.
One fan commented, “Oh Barry Manilow! We’ve all prayed for this and God answered our prayers as well as yours. May you continue to heal and be restored to new health. Blessings and Happy New Year. We Love You!”
“ALRIGHT! 2026 starting off right with this post,” commented another.
A third wrote, “I’ve loved you Barry for 50 years! My heart skipped a beat when I heard you were sick. So glad to see you are doing well and recuperating,” sparking others to commented, “ditto.”
Manilow’s backup singer Melanie Taylor also commented, “That’s my boss y’all! He’s making it through the rain! Love you B!”
His health update comes after he shared a statement on December 22, revealing he’ll be taking a break from performing to prepare for surgery and recover.
Manilow shared on Instagram that he had suffered “six weeks of bronchitis, followed by a relapse lasting another five weeks,” which led doctors to order an MRI.
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Manilow explained further, “The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed. It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early.”
He noted that surgeons did not believe the cancer had spread and he expected to avoid chemotherapy and radiation—leaning on
chicken soup and ‘I Love Lucy’ reruns” to provide him comfort in his healing journey.
The American Lung Association offered kind words prior to his surgery, commenting on his post,” Sending you our very best wishes as you prepare for surgery.
“Your transparency brings hope and awareness to so many and underscores how critical early detection can be.”
Manilow’s recovery journey precedes a major professional recognition, as he’s set to receive the President’s Award for Special Lifetime Contributions to Advertising from the American Advertising Federation (AAF) in the spring.
The honor is scheduled to be presented on April 23, 2026.
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Fans praised Manilow, calling the award “well-deserved,” with one commenting, “Congratulations Barry Manilow. You deserve this award, for all the joy you bring to people like me.
“I’ve loved your songs since 1994, and it will NEVER change. How’s this for being age 82?”
Another wrote, “Congratulations on this well-deserved award. Your amazing talent is just endless.”
“Are tickets available for this?? I’d love to witness this history in the making,” commented a third.
Barry Manilow’s Smoking History
Manilow, a throat cancer survivor, previously admitted to being a long-time cigarette smoker and, more recently, using vape pens to satisfy his nicotine cravings.
In a 2012 interview with the London Evening Standard in a 2012, Manilow opened up about his long history of smoking.
“Well, I smoked for 30 years. I started when I was nine years old. I grew up in Brooklyn,” he said.
“Then I stopped about [28 – 33] years ago. Then I just started in Las Vegas, and the band and I went down to a little club, and somebody offered me a cigarette. And I was back. Not on a pack a day, ’cause when I was really smoking, I was on three packs a day – non-filters. Oh yeah. I was a great smoker,” Manilow added.
According to OncoDaily, Manilow also previously battled throat cancer, something he was diagnosed with in 2020 after undergoing testing following noticeable changes in his voice.
Expert Lung Cancer Resources
- Checkpoint Inhibitors Before Surgery Could Improve The Odds For Lung Cancer Patients
- Do You Have A Small Lung Cancer Tumor? Consider If Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery Is Right For You.
- For Early Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Immunotherapy Keytruda Before and After Surgery May Significantly Reduce Risk of Disease Progression, Promising Study Shows
- Getting Ready For Lung Cancer Surgery
- Side Effects: Managing Pain and Discomfort after Lung Cancer Surgery
- Quitting Smoking Can Help the Success of Your Lung Cancer Surgery
- What is VATS Surgery for Lung Cancer?
Understanding Lung Cancer Surgery & The Healing Process
There are several types of surgery that can remove lung cancer, including segmentectomy (removal of a small segment of the lung), lobectomy (removal of a lobe of the lung) or pneumonectomy (removal of the entire lung). The decision is largely based on the size of the tumor and where in your lung it is located.
In Diagnosing Lung Cancer, The Symptoms Often Come Late
Before surgery, your oncologist must make sure you are in otherwise good health. This involves a thorough preoperative physical examination. Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, and it is also linked to heart and other arterial diseases, which means that you need an all-clear to be considered a surgical candidate for stage one lung cancer.
For anyone fortunate enough to be able to have surgery, managing pain after the operation can be difficult once you get home.
SurvivorNet previously spoke with Melissa Culligan, Director of Clinical Research – Division of Thoracic Surgery at University of Maryland Medical Center, who has been taking care of lung cancer patients for more than 30 years. Culligan expressed how crucial it is to stay in touch with your medical team.
“It’s important that you stay connected and as things change that maybe don’t feel right, that you connect with your care team and make sure that either they do something to make you feel better or that they reassure you that this is to be expected,” she said, “because your pain will change in location and nature,” Culligan added.
As you become more active, Culligan says your pain “may increase a little bit.”
Managing discomfort after lung cancer surgery
Lung Cancer Treatment Options
After a lung cancer diagnosis, you will need to discuss a few things with your doctor, such as the stage of the disease, your treatment options, and how long you have to consider these options, say our experts. Take your time in making a decision, and don’t be afraid to get a second opinion.
Lung cancer is no longer a death sentence, but it’s important to understand your treatment options, thoracic surgeon Dr. Raja Flores says.
Treatment varies depending on which type and stage of cancer you have. If the cancer is local — meaning just in the lungs — surgery may be an option. But if it has spread to the lymph nodes, a combination of radiation with chemotherapy, followed by immunotherapy, may be the best option. Once the cancer has spread outside of the lungs, chemotherapy and/or targeted drugs are used to control its growth as much as possible.
Treating Stage I Lung Cancer
Stage I lung cancer means that your cancer is only in your lungs and has not started to spread to your lymph nodes. Surgery to remove the cancer is considered the gold standard for this stage. Although there are subdivisions of stage I lung cancer, everyone who can have surgery should have surgery to remove their tumor. Some doctors or centers may discuss using a targeted drug after surgery depending on specific aspects unique to your tumor.
For anyone who can’t have surgery because of underlying health conditions, the current standard of care is stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), which directs extremely high doses of radiation to the tumor. SBRT minimizes the radiation dose to nearby structures, reducing the risk of damage to healthy organs.
Treating Stage II Lung Cancer
Stage II lung cancer means that your cancer is still in your lung, but it has spread to at least one lymph node. Surgery to remove a lobe of the lung (lobectomy) and the affected lymph node(s) is the first-line treatment. As with stage I lung cancer, there are subdivisions of stage II lung cancer, but these often don’t affect the initial treatment decision. Surgery is the gold standard treatment for stage II lung cancer, regardless of what subdivision you have. In some cases, surgery to remove the whole lung (pneumonectomy) may be necessary.
Chemotherapy plus immunotherapy may also be recommended to shrink the tumor before surgery and reduce chances of recurrence after surgery. Some doctors may discuss using a targeted drug after surgery depending on specific aspects unique to your tumor. Surgery could be followed by additional chemo and immunotherapy. In people with stage II disease who are unable to have surgery, meeting with a radiation oncologist is a very important step, because the tumor may be able to effectively be treated with radiation or chemoradiation, a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.
Stage IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC Lung Cancer Treatment
The decision to proceed with surgery for stage IIIA lung cancer is not always black and white, and it’s an area where doctors sometimes disagree.
Stage III lung cancers can fall into a gray zone. Whether surgery is a good option depends on where the tumor is located, says radiation oncologist, Dr. Keith Cengel.
In stage IIIA, surgery can play a role, depending on where the cancer is, how close it is to other structures, and how many lymph nodes are affected. Chemotherapy plus immunotherapy may also be an option before surgery to shrink the tumor and destroy any errant cancer cells. In scenarios where surgery is not ideal, patients are treated with radiation therapy, which is often given together with chemotherapy. Many of those who are treated with radiation and chemotherapy will receive immunotherapy, as well.
In stage IIIB, cancer has spread to the lymph nodes on the opposite side of the chest, or it has invaded another area, such as the veins feeding the heart. This stage is most often treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy, followed by immunotherapy. Like with stage IIIA disease, radiation serves as the backbone of treatment for patients with stage IIIB disease, and chemotherapy is often given to enhance the effects of radiation. Patients who tolerate chemotherapy and radiation therapy well are also considered for immunotherapy.
In stage IIIC, the primary tumor is large and the cancer has spread to lymph nodes on the opposite side of the chest, or it has invaded other structures, such as the veins feeding the heart. As with stage IIIA and stage IIIB cancers, radiation therapy is the mainstay of treatment. Chemotherapy is also used to enhance the effect of radiation therapy. Patients who respond to treatment may also receive immunotherapy.
Advancements In Lung Cancer Treatment
Lung cancer treatment is still evolving, offering the promise of hope for people living with this type of cancer. Research presented at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) showed that (generic name: durvalumab) (brand name: Imfinzi), a type of immunotherapy drug, could reduce the risk of death for patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) by 27-percent.
The study demonstrated that the use of Imfinzi improved overall survival and progression-free survival (the time a patient lives without their disease getting worse) in patients.
“SCLC is one of the most aggressive types of lung cancer. The ADRIATIC trial is a landmark study and provides a new standard of care with the addition of immunotherapy for patients with early-stage SCLC who are being treated with the goal of curing their cancer,” said Dr. Lauren Byers, thoracic section chief in the Department of Thoracic-Head & Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Dr. Byers pointed out that Imfinzi helped patients live for years compared to many other treatment approaches where the benefits were measured in months.
WATCH: Understanding Immunotherapy in Lung Cancer.
Another treatment option that has shown great promise is the drug Rybrevant, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) and has a specific genetic mutation your doctor can identify through testing.
“When a patient comes in, we immediately sequence the tumor. We are doing panels that might include three, four, or 500 genes, the ones that are most likely. Some sort of next-generation approach is the best standard of care these days – it has to be done,” Dr. Herbst explains.
The active ingredient in Rybrevant is amivantamab-vmjw. It belongs to a class of drugs known as biologics, which are made from living cells.
The drug works like a guided missile, finding and sticking to the bad cancer cells. It targets and attaches to two specific proteins in cancer cells, disrupting their growth signals and activating the immune system to fight the cancer.
Once it finds its target, it blocks signals the cells need to grow and spread. This stops the cancer from worsening and helps patients feel better for longer.
Rybrevant is different from older cancer treatments because it is a targeted drug therapy. It doesn’t just attack all rapidly dividing cells like traditional chemotherapy does. Instead, it goes after the cancer cells with the mutation it was designed to treat while avoiding the healthy surrounding cells. This means it can be more effective and might have fewer side effects than other treatments.
WATCH: Imfinzi offering hope to patients.
Lorlatinib and crizotinib are other lung cancer treatments known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors. These drugs target ALK, a signaling protein inappropriately present in the tumors of about five percent of patients with NCSLC.
“It is encouraging that the upfront benefits of lorlatinib over crizotinib continue for several years in more than half the patients. It also is encouraging that patients receiving lorlatinib had much fewer incidences of brain metastasis, which can be devastating,” Dr. Leslie Busby, an oncologist at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, told SurvivorNet.
Five-year PFS, or the percentage of patients who lived five years without any evidence of cancer growth or death, was 60% among patients who received lorlatinib compared to only 8% among patients who received crizotinib—an absolute difference greater than 50%.
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Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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