About Lung Cancer

© Steven C. Immerman, MD, FACS

Lung cancer is usually diagnosed by finding a "spot" on the lung on a chest x-ray or other type of x-ray study. Some times a patient with lung cancer has symptoms of cough, chest pain, shortness or breath, pneumonia, weight loss or coughing up blood. Other times there are no symptoms. It is the second most commonly occurring cancer among men and women. It has been estimated that there will be 164,100 new cases of lung cancer in the U.S. in 2000 alone. Lung cancer is related to smoking, radon exposure, and exposure to other industrial chemicals. However, sometimes there is no obvious explanation of why a patient has developed a lung cancer.

Lung Cancers are divided into two major types:

• Non-small cell which is the most common type of lung cancer. This includes squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. 
• Small cell which can spread fairly quickly. Small cell lung cancer (also called oat cell cancer) is the less common lung cancer type, accounting for about 20% of all lung cancer.

Treatment of Lung Cancer
Surgery provides the best chance of curing lung cancer. It is used when the cancer is limited to the lung itself, and has not spread outside the lung. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy are also used either by themselves, together, or in combination with surgery.

The exact treatment recommended depends on the size, location and degree of spread of the tumor. In addition, the general health of the patient and the health of the heart and lungs help determine what is safe and appropriate treatment.