Treatment for lung cancer

Treatment for lung cancer can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and other targeted therapy drugs. You may have a combination of lung cancer treatments. Some people have a number of different treatments in a row, to keep the cancer under control.

The lung cancer treatment you have will depend on:

• the stage of the cancer
• the type of lung cancer you have – small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are treated in different ways
• your general health.

Your doctor and specialist nurse will involve you in treatment decisions, so you can talk about your treatment options and preferences. They can also help you if you need to make decisions about lung cancer treatment.

We understand that having treatment can be a difficult time for people. We're here to support you. If you want to talk, you can:

• Call the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00.
• Chat to our specialists online
• Visit our Online Community to talk to people who have been affected by lung cancer, share your experience, and ask an expert your questions.

Your cancer doctor may talk to you about taking part in research, such as a clinical trial.

Radiotherapy treats cancer by using high-energy x-rays. It can be used to treat both types of lung cancer. It may be given:

• on its own instead of surgery, to try to cure early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
• with or after chemotherapy (chemoradiation), for both NSCLC and small cell lung cancer (SCLC)
• to the head, to stop any lung cancer cells that have spread from growing into a secondary cancer in the brain (for people with SCLC)
• to control symptoms, if the cancer is more advanced or has spread to other parts of the body (palliative radiotherapy).

If you have non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), it may be possible to remove the cancer with surgery. The type of operation will depend on the size and position of the cancer. For some people, surgery may not be suitable. This might be because of other health problems that would make it unsafe or difficult to cope with a major operation.

Surgery is rarely used to treat small cell lung cancer (SCLC), unless the cancer is small and has not spread outside the lung. Other treatments are usually more suitable for SCLC, such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Tumour ablation treatments destroy cancer cells using heat or laser light. This is sometimes used to treat very early-stage lung cancers.

We have more information about tumour ablation treatments.