Lung Cancer

What is Lung Cancer?

Lung cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the lung. It causes the most cancer deaths in the United States, but the chance of survival improves if diagnosed early. Lung cancer screenings are an important way to save lives and offer the potential to be cured.

The best way to counter lung cancer is to prevent it, and the most likely way to do that is to simply quit smoking, or even better never start. The next best thing is to catch lung cancer early, which gives the greatest possibility of being cured through radiation, chemotherapy, surgery or some combination.

What are the Types of Lung Cancer?

Lung cancer includes two main types: non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer.

Types of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

• Squamous cell carcinoma
• Large cell carcinoma
• Adenocarcinoma

Types of Small Cell Lung Cancer

• Small cell carcinoma
• Combined small cell carcinoma

What are the Risk Factors?

Smoking is the leading risk factor for lung cancer. 80%-90% of lung cancer deaths are linked to cigarette smoking.

• Breathing second-hand smoke is also risky, as if you were smoking yourself.
• Radon can sometimes be found in homes. Breathing in high levels can expose you to small amounts of radiation.
• People exposed to large amounts of asbestos also have a greater risk of developing mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer.
• Your risk of lung cancer may be higher if your parents, siblings or children have had lung cancer.

What Should I Know About Screening?

Getting screened for lung cancer is critical, as finding the cancer at an earlier stage improves outcomes. Within Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute, our goal is to cause a stage shift, so that more lung cancers will be diagnosed in earlier stages. 

A lung cancer screening is a non-invasive, low-dose CT scan. Other regular cancer screenings, such as colonoscopies and mammograms, involve discomfort, but a lung cancer screening only involves lying still for a few minutes. 

Such scans may detect small lung nodules, or lesions, that cannot be diagnosed as clearly benign or clearly cancerous. These lesions, known as indeterminate nodules, typically require follow-up with repeated CT scans, a biopsy or even surgery.

Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute’s Lung Nodule Program is helping to identify more patients with lung cancer at earlier stages, often even before they experience symptoms. Every week a multidisciplinary team of experts gathers to review CT scans with lung nodules that were taken for some other reason, such as a scan of the abdomen for another condition. If lung nodules were noticed in those scans, this team will discuss next steps, such as ongoing monitoring of the patient or plans for a biopsy or more testing. Since starting in spring 2021, the program has identified many patients with lung cancer earlier and put them on a path for recovery.

Who Should Get Screened for Lung Cancer?

Most early-stage lung cancers are completely asymptomatic, which is why screening is so important! Screenings happen before symptoms arise. There are three major criteria to identify who may be at highest risk of developing lung cancer and therefore should be screened:

1. Between the ages 50 and 80
2. Actively smoking at that age or quit smoking within the last 15 years
3. Someone who has smoked an average of a pack per day for 20 years or more

Accessing a screening can happen through a referral from your primary care physician or connecting with our lung coordinator at (225) 765-3030.

What are the Treatment Offerings?

• For non-small cell lung cancer, nine types of standard treatment are used:
• Surgery, including state-of-the-art robotic tumor removal surgery
• Radiation therapy
• Chemotherapy
• Targeted therapy
• Immunotherapy
• For small cell lung cancer, six types of standard treatment are used:
• Surgery, including state-of-the-art robotic tumor removal surgery
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation therapy
• Immunotherapy

New types of treatment are being tested in clinical trials, and patients may want to think about taking part in such trials. Patients can enter clinical trials before, during or after starting their cancer treatment.

Some content courtesy of the National Cancer Institute.