SurvivorNet asked some of the leading surgeons in the country to help explain the options for lung cancer surgery.
There are several types of surgery for lung cancer, and the decision about which is best is based largely on the location of your cancer, its size and whether it has started to spread. A wedge resection is an option if the tumor is small and located on the outside of the lung. In this procedure, your surgeon removes a piece of the lung (in the shape of a wedge) and lung function is not affected.
Read More By contrast, a lobectomy or a segmentectomy involves the removal of a certain segment of the lung (a lobe). During a pneumonectomy, however, the entire lung is removed. There are several different ways to do lung cancer surgery. The standard operation used to be open surgery with a big incision in the chest and then spreading apart the ribs. But because of the pain after the operation and the lengthy recovery time, doctors are increasingly using less invasive operations including minimally invasive video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and robotic techniques. Your surgeon will go over all of these options with you when planning your treatment.
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