Lung Cancer Surgery

Question: What are the recovery rates of lung surgery for stage IV lung cancer? I have battled lung cancer for 2 years and have the opportunity to have a portion of my right lung removed. What are the typical outcomes and after affects of such surgery?

Answer: I agree with Denisedd. If you are planning surgery, your surgeon should be carefully explaining the expected benefits verses the risks of the operation. Your surgeon and medical oncologist and perhaps the radiation oncologist should be discussing your situation as a group to provide all points of view regarding surgery. If you have correctly listed your lung carcinoma as stage IV - widespread disease - the doctors must consider where else you have disease and how much benefit you might gain from a partial lung resection. Your doctors know the details of your case which you do not provide for us. What was the initial stage? What was the histopathology - the type of lung cancer? Where has it spread? What treatments have already been tried? What is the tumor volume - roughly estimated? We should not be offering advice at this distance with so little information. We don't even know your age?

Question: If a person has lung cancer, does surgery on the lung speed up missed cancer cells? I have heard that once surgery is performed, if the doctor misses any cancer, it will really speed up.

Answer: When I had lung surgery (non-smoker) from testes metastis cancer, they removed good tissue as well. The easiest way to describe this is to put a nickle on top of a quarter. The nickle is the cancer, the amount of tissue removed is the quarter. It is possible to still spread, so usually the procedure is slow.

Question: how high is the likelihood to die of lung cancer as a pasive smoker compared to a surgery? I have back problems and think I will take drogs tilI I die. Will surgery kill me or I will have lung cancer as a passive smoker ? What is the likelihood to die from what I told above?

Answer: There are many things you can do if you consider yourself to be a high risk for cancer. The following is a simple list followed by detains for each item on the list. Mammograms - Is all that radiation necessary? Safe? No. No. Antioxidants - Nothing beats Cantron and Protocel. Ellagic acid is a good preventative for some cancers. IP-6 a good preventative and treatment for most cancers. Cooked Foods and Safe Cooking reduce breast cancer Irradiated foods there is some cancer risk, better to wash your food. Wearing Brassieres all day prevents lymph circulation. Parabens found in many lotions may be dangerous. Sunlight is one of the best cancer preventatives. Vitamin D up to 70% reduction in cancer, Love as a Preventative is not as hard as you might think. Mammography and Mammograms The section presents evidence concerning the dangers and short comings of mammograms and presents a couple of alternatives for breast cancer detection. Dangers of Radiation Dr. John Gofman, M.D., Ph. D. who was the biomedical director and associate director of the Atomic Energy Commission's Livermore National Laboratory and is now Professor Emeritus, Molecular and Cell Biology, at the University of California, Berkeley and is also on the faculty at the University of California Medical School at San Francisco (UCSF), has written an extensive study** to support his hypothesis that medical radiation is probably the principal cause of cancer mortality in the United States. The Moss report Mammograpy - the Hidden Downside** presents and often overlooked aspect of mammograms: "Mammography is undoubtedly good at picking up slow-growing cancers. It is also good at detecting so-called 'in situ' lesions, that is, the latent, precancerous lesions that have not yet developed – and might never develop - into truly invasive cancers. But these are not the kinds of breast cancer that are most likely to kill. That distinction belongs to the faster-growing tumors, and it is precisely these faster growing malignancies that mammography typically fails to catch." Also quoted in this Moss Report, Prof. Samuel Epstein, MD, of the University of Illinois pointed out: "Even assuming that high quality screening of a population of women between the ages of 50 and 69 would reduce breast cancer mortality by up to 25 percent, yielding a reduced relative risk of 0.75, the chances of any individual woman benefiting are remote. For women in this age group, about 4 percent are likely to develop breast cancer annually, about one in four of whom, or 1 percent overall, will die from this disease. Thus, the 0.75 relative risk applies to this 1 percent, so 99.75 percent of the women screened are unlikely to benefit" (Epstein 2001). Better/Safer Testing - Thermograms DITI, or digital infrared thermal imaging, also called a thermogram, is a safe diagnostic test that measures changes in skin surface temperature. An infrared scanning camera detects skin surface temperatures and shows them on a color monitor. In healthy people, there is a symmetrical skin pattern. Breast cancer appears as an irregular pattern. DITI has been used in human medicine for the past 20 years. Recent break-troughs in PC-based designed has allowed more practitioners to be able to afford the equipment. Most Naturopaths in your area will be aware of this type of testing. Some have thermogram practitioners come to their offices on a periodic basis. See also AMAS For Early Detection under the Safer Tests subsection of the Home page. Antioxidants Even the FDA has agreed that antioxidants act as cancer preventatives. Cantron and Protocel are among the most powerful antioxidants ever tested so they can be used as a preventative. When taking them as a preventative, a reduced schedule can be used and a person does not have to avoid all the things that interfere with Cantron or Protocel. Ellagic Acid Ellagic acid is a good preventative for these cancers: Breast Cervical Colon Esophageal Leukemia Liver Lung Pancreatic Prostate Skin Tongue Cesium Chloride Cesium chloride with potassium is a good general preventative as is laetrile. All together, that makes five alternative cancer treatments that act to prevent cancer. Which one will work best with your unique body chemistry? Once again, the only way to tell is to test each on your body. A quick way to do this is to use the Alternative Cancer Test Kit. With the Test Kit you can energetically test $800 worth of treatments for only $39. For more information, click the Test Kit. IP-6 IP-6, also known as inositol hexaphosphate, has shown effectiveness in preventing and treating a wide range of cancers including colon cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, chronic myeloid leukemia, rhabdomyosarcomas, pancreatic cancer, melanomas, and Barrett's adenocarcinoma and can be given to cats and dogs. IP6 has been studied for cancer prevention and treatment since the 1950s. For prevention most people are taking 500 to 1000 mg a day in two doses on an empty stomach. Those at high risk for cancer, fatty liver, or kidney stones are taking from 1000 to 2000 mg a day in two doses on an empty stomach. People with cancer are taking 4000 to 7000 mg a day in two doses on an empty stomach along with 1,200 - 1800 mg inositol. Toxicity studies have shown that a daily dose of 9000 mg of IP-6 for 3 years did not produce harmful side effects. Cooked Foods Increase Cancer in Women - Acrylamide A 2007 Dutch study, the Cohort Study involving 120,000 people found that acrylamide, a chemical caused by frying, baking, roasting, or grilling can double the chances of women getting ovarian and womb cancer. Foods that are cooked less contain less acrylamide. Cutting the crust of of bread reduces the number of carbos and acrylamide. Home-cooked meals contain much lower amounts of the acrylamide than processed products, fast food, or restaurant food. Safe Cooker - Solar Oven The Solar Oven Society** is a not-for-profit organization. Every solar oven purchased in the USA helps offset the cost of sending solar ovens to Third World countries where the need for solar cooking is so great. Solar cooking is: Safe because the temperature used kills bacteria but does not form acrylamide Inexpensive because after the $150 oven purchase the fuel is free. Healthy because it retains the enzymes in food which are essential for good health To purchase the solar oven for $150 including shipping** (free shipping is significant, only companies that rarely get a return include shipping in the cost because they must refund shipping as well as the product cost) go to: http://solarovens.org/ Irradiated Foods This is an excellent article** that explains the cancer risk, slight although present and a better alternative: washing your food. Wearing Brassieres for Extended Periods An extensive study of over 4700 women (2056 previously diagnosed with breast cancer, 2674 never diagnosed with breast cancer) was run by authors Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer that indicated a positive correlation between breast cancer and the length of time that women wore bras per day. Those who wore a bra all day long (defined in the study as any period more than 12 hours) had statistically 21 times greater risk of breast cancer than those who only wore a bra for only part of the day (defined in the study as any period up to 12 hours). Women who wore their bras all day and night (essentially 24 hours per day) had a 5 times greater chance of developing breast cancer than those who wore it all day-long. The study conjectured that wearing a bra may constrict the flow of lymph fluid in the breast, which then causes the higher risk of breast cancer. Lymph fluid is the natural watery fluid which surrounds and bathes cells in body tissues. Lymph fluid carries disease-fighting cells and helps remove accumulated toxins, some of which may be carcinogenic (cancer-causing). The impaired flow of lymph fluid is thought to allow toxins to build up, thus causing breast tissue cells to be exposed to higher concentrations of cancer-causing toxins for longer periods of time. The study suggested that women wear their bras for fewer hours, thus giving their breasts time to "recover" and also not wearing bras that feel constrictive or tight. For more details on the study, conducted by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, see their book Dressed to Kill, (Avery Publishing Group, New York, 1995). ISBN 0-89529-664-0. Available from The Naturist Society, P.O. Box 132, Oshkosh, WI 54902, Tel. 414-426-5009. Lotions Potions and Parabens Parabens are preservatives that are found in most body lotions, deodorants, and shampoos. In 2004 the University of Reading tested 20 human breast tumors for the presence of parabens. They found parabens in every tumor. Apparently parabens had seeped into breast tissue after being applied to the skin in the form of lotions or deodorants. The reason this is significant is that parabens are able to mimic the action of the female hormone estrogen. Although more research is needed it seems prudent to reduce your exposure to parabens. Also 1,4-Dioxane, a by-product of short cut manufactureing, is considered a chemical known to cause cancer. The following are parabens and 1,4-Dioxane free brands of lotion: Aubrey Organics, Dr. Hauschka, Nourish Food for Your Healthy Skin, EO, Avalon Organics, Burt's Bees, Desert Essence, and Zia. Sunlight Contrary to popular belief, sunlight has the highest success rate for: Safely stopping tumor growth, not destroying tumors (the only effect that conventional medicine recognizes), but stopping growth. Preventing cancer by stimulating the body's vitamin D production. Preventing influenza like the bird flu also by vitamin D production. Fair skin and the number of moles are the major risk factor for melanoma (ski

Question: surgery, lung cancer. confused help please.? my girlfriend jenni just had surgery today for her lung cancer... and during the surgery they sedated her... shes been asleep for 12 hours now.. and i wanna know if theres a garenteed that she's gona wake up from it.... =( she has woken up today, she is still being given meds. i've been told that they took a pretty big chunk out of her lung =( she is intubated as well.

Answer: Unfortunately there is no gaurantee they will wake up, HOWEVER most people do. Is she still on the breathing machine? If so she is probably being given meds to keep her asleep. If she had a lung resection (they took out part of her lung) she may also be being given large amounts of pain medication as well. See how she is doing tomorrow. It is hard to give you a good answer with the limited info you gave.

Question: how long should a patient wait to have surgery for lung cancer can they wait 6 weeks?

Answer: I don't think any good can come by delaying treatment. And you other people would be well-advised to know that lung cancer can and is acquired often by people that don't smoke and don't live with those that smoke. It can be caused by many things...exposure to chemicals, pollution, etc.

Question: Recently had thoracic surgery, for non small cell lung cancer what are my chances of the lung cancer returning The surgery was very painful, but i made it , now I worry about it comming back, I had 2/3 of one lung removed, What are the chances that the cancer might return to the rest of that lung?

Answer: Are you going to go through chemo now ? Or radiation? Non small cell is the worst kind, but if they caught it early and got the tumor and do chemo you could have more than 5 years left.

Question: What should a person with lung cancer do if not chemo or surgery? Don't have details yet as to staging, etc....but don't think could withstand chemo. Any alternatives successsful?

Answer: If you are looking for magical answers . . where cancer is concerned . . there are none. Cancer is a rotten disease and there are no 'easy' treatments. There is no cure for cancer, but there is treatment that can lead to an individual remission and potential 'cure'. If chemo or surgery is out of the question for you than you may consider palliative rather than curative treatment, which may make you eligible for clinical trials. You should consider doing a clinical trial to try the newer targeted drugs being offered cancer patients (although you might also get them off trial). Many of the Tyrosine kinase inhibitors or monoclonal antibody drugs are taken orally every day, less toxic, and have very few if any side effects (except your hair turns white). Sunitinib is one of the newer multi-targeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors that is in Phase II Clinical studies for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Efficacy and safety of sunitinib in previously treated, advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): Preliminary results of a multicenter phase II trial. http://www.asco.org/portal/site/ASCO/menuitem.34d60f5624ba07fd506fe310ee37a01d/?vgnextoid=76f8201eb61a7010VgnVCM100000ed730ad1RCRD&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=40&abstractID=34252

Question: I had surgery to remove my lung cancer I did have it in my lyumps nodes. do I still need further treatment? what is the percentage that the cancer will come back without any other treatment?

Answer: I know of some people that have had lung surgery and opted for no further treatment and are doing fine. Others not so lucky.. there may be cancer cells still in the body that can't be detected at an early stage, so chemo is often recommended to reduce that risk.

Question: my mom had lung surgery to remove stage 2-3 lung cancer.? The dr removed her lower right lobe and her middle right lobe. The pathology reports are not in yet. She was sent home 1 week after the surgery. What do we expect next. I forgot to mention she also has COPD and emphazima.

Answer: Now's the time to hurry up and wait. Continue all of the medication as the doctor prescribed it and pray! She should take her time and rest as much as possible, do her deep breathing and coughing exercises. I hope that she recuperates quickly and that the pathology is positive, God bless.

Question: Should you have chemo for lung cancer following surgery? My dad had a 5cm tumour (squamous cell carcinoma) removed from his right lower lobe of his lungs in early December. They removed half of the lung. The surgeon reported that there was a clear margin around the tumour and also no lymph node involvement. He went and saw the oncologist this week and was told it was his choice that as to whether or not he has chemo. He was told that his chance of cure is 60% if he doesn't have chemo, and 65% if he does. I know that it doesn't increase that odds much, but I feel that you can't leave these things to chance and any extra chance of cure should be considered. I realised however that chemo is a pretty nasty thing. He would need it for 4 mouths. He is 62 and fit and well otherwise. He has been having treatment for bladder cancer also over the last year, but this is under control and not related to the lung cancer. What are peoples opinions for, or against the chemo? I would really appreciate any advice. Thanks! Thanks worriedm.. I'm really sorry but accidently gave you a thumbs down instead of up! oops - sorry! In respect to the bladder ca, he was diagnosed about 18 months ago. He has had it recur 4 times since diagnosis, but it hasn't affected the bladder wall. The urologist said it was more of a nuisance than a huge concern. He was treated with oncotice in September for six weeks. He then went back to theatre about 2 weeks ago and the bladder was all clear, there was no recurrance. The oncologist said that both the lung and bladder cancers were primary's. BTW he gave up smoking when his bladder cancer was diagnosed.

Answer: It really isn't a case of "should you", more like "would you." For a stage IB lung cancer, I'd estimate his risk of recurrence to be ~ 40% too. Overall the benefits of chemotherapy, from the original trials, looked like an absolute survival benefit of 5%. Further followup and data suggest benefit may be closer to 10%. Chemotherapy can be tough, doesn't have to be though, and certainly is not nearly as tough relatively speaking as recurrent lung cancer (this is after all what you are balancing the side effects of chemotherapy with). The bladder cancer history is not clear to me, but may play a bigger part in decision-making for his doctor. Ultimately he has to decide whether the 5-10 extra chances out of a 100 he will live without recurrent lung cancer are worth obtaining for the price of going through 304 months of chemotherapy. I tell many patients who are on the fence to try one treatment and see. You don;'t have to buy in to all of it at once, can sto any time, and usually all side effects are short-lived. God bless, best wishes

Question: With lung cancer, is it possible to have surgery to have the cancer cells removed?

Answer: A lot of it depends on the type of lung cancer. NON-Small Cell lung cancer can be operated on if found in the earlier stages (Stages 1 and 2). This is then carried out by doing a wedge resection - removing a small section of the lung that contains the tumor with a margin of healthy cells, lobectomy - removing the whole lobe of the lung, or a pneumonectomy - removing the entire lung. Small Cell lung cancer cannot be operated on. It spreads to lymph nodes and other organs so rapidly that it is often too late to operate. They can't remove the lymph nodes because there are thousands of them. If it is found in the lymph nodes there is the chance it has already spread to other organs and tests will be taken to determine which, if any. Chemotherapy and radiation usually follow both diagnoses.

Question: lung cancer i just had surgery about a month ago is it normal to cough alot at bedtime?

Answer: Hi there, you have my sympathy! I hope that you are feeling better daily. I had my left lung removed a few years ago, it was not cancer related, it was a freak accident. However, the operation is likely similar to the one you have recently had. Yes, it does take time to heal and it's frustrating at times. Your question about coughing at bedtime, reminded me how I was! I coughed a lot, laying down flat seemed to make it worse, so I propped the bed up with pillows at night, which is a good idea and helps. Having said that, it IS good to cough and keep your chest clear, as that's really the only way of ensuring that. Sneezing, or the fear of it was also awful as it was unbelievably painful, so if you do get that...gently but firmly hold your palms against your ribs, if you want to sneeze or cough. It took me a few months to get really better and where you have incisions, will find tingly pain as the nerves recuperate too. That bit occurs around the six-week mark, but continually improves. Above all, remain positive...it will help you get better, and stay healthier, I promise. I wish you well. Kind regards. X

Question: My dad had lung cancer 7 mos ago now scans reveal "multiple lung nodules"? My dad had stage 2B non-small lung cancer, surgery to remove 1/3 of his lung followed by 4 rounds of chemo due to the fact that it had traveled to 3 of the area lymph nodes. Now, the first scan after surgery/treatment shows "multiple nodules" that werent there prior to the diagnosis but now we have to wait 4 weeks for another scan before the docs can say what they are. Anyone able/willing to share their experiences and/or thoughts to help me while I go crazy waiting? Thank you.

Answer: I'm guessing that the nodules were too small for them to characterize. My question is did they do a PET scan and if so did these nodules "light-up"? If a nodule lights up on PET scan it may indicate that it is malignant. Unfortunately, lung cancer can be quite difficult to treat. It is possible that the cancer has spread despite the surgery and chemo. Does you dad have non-small cell or small cell lung cancer? Small cell tends to be more "aggressive" and can spread pretty quickly. There are multiple chemo regimens to use for lung cancer that can be tried even if the first treatment didn't work.

Question: Can cancer be stop? I have had both colon and lung cancer. I had surgery to remove them, so far so good.?

Answer: Well having surgey is a good sign. If it was extremely bad, they would probably not have operated, except to give some relief. You need to know if the cancer has spread anywhere else in your body. If it has and it is treatable the doctors would have offered you some chemotherapy. These are questions best answered by your surgeon or oncologist. Best wishes.

Question: lung cancer? My mother in law was diagnosed with stages 2-3 lung cancer yesterday. She is having surgery in 2 weeks to remove the mass and test the lymphnodes. does anyone know the survival rate and what she is in for, the dr said it's major surgery and she will be in awful pain if anyone knows anyone that has been through this. Thankyou

Answer: Stage I lung cancer has a 50-60% 5 year survival rate, II about 30-40%, stage III 15%, stage IV <3%. It is major surgery. It is likely that without successful removal of cancer surgically, survival will be shorter; chemotherapy and radiation can be used instead of surgery (or in addition to surgery); surgery is the key though if possible. Be optimistic, patients can be cured. Her pain can be treated; make sure she stresses that priority and if needed request a pain service consult if available for extra assistance. God bless, best wishes

Question: My mother's lung cancer is now on her spine- T2-T5, what are the chances of her surviving? My mother had lung cancer...got surgery and chemo/rad.---now after maybe 9 months it's back and larger---it's moved into her spine... I have read that this means it's type "IV"...if I wait a few days the doctors will have more information- but i'm scared and impatient---I want the truth if anyone can help I know this is BAD, but I need to know how bad thank you

Answer: ok i know this does not really answer your question but.... believe.....