Dr. Madhuri Rao, Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Minnesota, discusses when
surgery may be an option for lung cancer and when it may not be recommended. For
non-small cell lung cancer (
NSCLC), surgery is most often considered when the cancer is found at an early stage, is limited to the lung, and the patient is healthy enough to recover from the procedure. In some cases where NSCLC is slightly more advanced, surgery may still be possible but is often combined with other treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or immunotherapy. For
small cell lung cancer (
SCLC), surgery is rarely used because this type of cancer tends to spread quickly and is usually diagnosed at a more advanced stage. However, in very rare situations, surgery may still be an option.
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