Lung cancer could be treated using a special procedure called endobronchial and vascular treatment. This is employed in case if the cancer has developed in the trachea which is famously known as windpipe. These cancer cells have a tendency to block the air that we breathe in and therefore must be detected and treated at the preliminary stage itself. This procedure involves prophylactic cranial radiotherapy which is used to cease the growth of tumors in brain. It also involves photodynamic therapy which makes use of light source such as laser along with some tender drugs to kill cancer cells. Stenting is also a part of this treatment which is used when tumor cells tend to block the flow of blood in the blood vessel of human chest. It involves the use of a small tubing or stent which is put into the blood vessel to keep the block open. These kind of sophisticated treatments are available only in few hospitals across the world. With recent advancements in technology every hospital could be expected to be equipped with such procedures in the near future.

Lung cancer can conquer a person in two forms named small cell lung cancer and non small cell lung cancer. The former could be treated using either surgery or chemotherapy. Chemotherapy increases the chance of survival of the affected patients and gives them some more valuable time to live their life. Platinum and a medicament named etoposide are employed in chemotherapy. These drugs enter into the bloodstream and they serve the purpose of attacking any cancer cells even if they have spread beyond the lungs. Sometimes it also accompanied by radiotherapy. It is usually performed three to six times with regular intervals between consecutive treatments. If the cancer cell starts to grow once again after some months or years the patient is once again subjected to such procedure. This will help in increasing the life time of the patient. The other form of lung cancer is usually treated with surgery. During surgery part of the lung that has the cancer cell or whole of the lung are removed by employing specialized procedures with high care.

Several tests are performed in hospitals for detecting lung cancer. Computed tomography scan gives a clear picture of our lungs and will help the doctors to determine whether our lungs are normal are not. If the person’s lung is found suspicion of having lung cancer then he/she is subjected to biopsy process in which a sample of tissue is taken from the person’s lung. This sample is examined then to check for cancer cells. There are many ways for taking tissue samples from humans. Bronchoscopy is one such way to take samples from central part of lung. A flimsy tube is passed through human nose or mouth into the lungs for the purpose of taking samples. This procedure is not a time consuming one as it takes generally around 20 to 30 minutes at the maximum. Other such methods include percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy and mediastinoscopy. These are employed for taking samples from edges of lungs and from the area between lungs and lymph nodes respectively. The latter involves a surgical procedure for taking samples but the former does not.

Lung cancer has always been a nightmare among diseases especially for those people who have this inescapable habit of smoking. The beauty of the disease is that it gets into the person without any acknowledgment and the affected person becomes aware of it only when it has colonized well and has become a part of the person. The initial symptoms could be pertinacious coughing and wheezing accompanied by difficulty in breathing but these are ignored by many people who generally think that they have got cold or they come up with new reasons convincing themselves. This happens generally because of lack of awareness among people especially among those who are illiterate. Once the cancer gets severe the persons starts to cough up blood and he/she may acquire diseases such as bronchitis or pneumonia. But by the time they consult a medic and become aware of their disease it would be already late and from then they got no other option other than to start counting on their days left in this world. Therefore proper awareness has to prevail among people to consult doctors during the early stage of the disease.

Surgery has always been the best option for treating lung cancer even though there are other available therapies such as radiation and chemo therapy. Patients generally fear that they may be exposed to hazardous radiation when they undergo such therapies and most often they prefer to go for surgery. They also believe that the former is only a temporary cure to keep the tumors in control but the latter may render the tumors ineffective for quite a long period. Even doctors believe that surgery is a better option for treating the disease and therefore they have made efforts in improving the surgical procedure so that they can delay the growth of tumor cells for a longer period. One such advancement is minimal invasive surgery. This is no different from conventional surgical procedure except for one thing. In this kind of procedure doctors try and keep the size of incision as small as possible so that the immune system will focus on fighting the tumor cells rather trying to recover the patients from the trauma of complex surgical procedure.