It is important for doctors to put patients into the proper stage. In this way, they can tell patients what the best treatment is for them. Stages 1 and 2 usually allow for a more localized treatment, but the treatment team will create a plan that is appropriate for each patient.  Visit the Stages page to learn more about how to determine the stage of lung cancer.  The charts below represent the general treatment options that Roswell Park patients received. The proportions of combination therapies are not represented.
 

Surgical treatment is most common in early stage lung cancer. Sometimes chemotherapy is the only therapy a patient receives. More often, however, chemotherapy is used in addition to surgery and/or radiation therapy; when it is used for this purpose, it is called adjuvant therapy.

There are several reasons why chemotherapy may be given in addition to other treatment methods. For instance, chemotherapy may be used to shrink a tumor before surgery or radiation therapy. It also may be used after surgery and/or radiation therapy to help destroy any cancer cells that may remain. The decision depends on what kind of cancer you have, where it is, the extent of its growth, how it is affecting your normal body functions, and your general health.

Radiation Therapy is also a widely used technique for the treatment of lung cancer, generally in conjunction with surgery and/or chemotherapy. This technique requires identification of the exact anatomic location of the tumor for volume outline and field design as well as the exact location and outline of normal adjacent anatomic structures. Most patients receiving treatment for cancer will be given "external-beam" radiation, produced by a linear accelerator machine. Linear accelerators (Linacs) are currently the standard basic treatment units used to deliver high energy x-rays (ionizing radiation) to target cancer sites within lung tissue (primary site) and/or regional lymph nodes.

Observation alone may also be a treatment option. Occasionally, a patient may not receive standard treatment because they specifically declined; or watchful waiting may be considered in rare specific cases of very early stage disease; or in later stage disease for those who were advised against it by their doctors because of specific, documented medical reasons.