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===|| HOME || CAUSE || EFFECTS || TREATMENT|| PREVENTION || CHOICE || NOTES || MLA ||=== Treatment of Lung Cancer

The treatment of lung cancer is planned by checking what type of lung cancer one has, **where the cancer is inside your lung, your overall health, the stage of the cancer, and the results of blood tests.** There are 3 types of treatment for lung cancer and they are **surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy**. These treatment methods are used to treat either a **small cell lung cancer or a non small cell lung cancer**.

Small Cell Lung Cancer: Chemotherapy is usually the treatment for small cell lung cancer because it helps one live longer and helps control the symptoms. Surgery is often not the choice for small cell lung cancer unless it is found very early because if the cell has spread out throughout the body, it cannot be scanned. However, surgery may be used before chemotherapy or radiotherapy so that the risk of getting lung cancer again can be reduced.

Non Small Cell Lung Cancer: Surgery can reduce the lung cancer in stage 1 and sometimes 2. However, if one is not fit enough to withstand the surgery, they would be treated with radiotherapy. After surgery, the patients are treated with chemotherapy to reduce the possibility of lung cancer coming back again. From stage 3 of non small cell lung cancer, it is difficult to remove it because it would have spread quite a lot. If this is the case, then radiotherapy and chemotherapy are used on their own or combined. If the non samll cell lung cancer has moved onto stage 4, things get a little difficult. Stage 4 means that the cell has spread to other parts of the body. In this case, radiotherapy would be used to shrink the cancer and reduce its symptoms. The aim of this is to control symptoms and maintain a good quality of life as long as possible.

In conclusion, no matter what kind of cancer you have or how serious it is, the doctor will choose the best treatment for you all the time.

Always tallk to a doctor if in doubt of lung cancer and they'll find the best treatment for you!

QUIZ: What are the 3 types of treatment?