Saving Your Breath: Less is More in Early-Stage Lung Cancer Surgery

In 10 seconds? Lung-sparing surgical techniques can be just as effective for lung cancer patients as the common practice of removing large sections of the lungs. These promising results come from two large-scale studies.

Lung cancer surgery? Can you tell me more about it? Absolutely! Sometimes cancer can be treated by surgically removing the tumor, even in vital organs like the lungs. So, what happens? Our lungs are partitioned into sections called lobes. Our right lung has three lobes and our left lung has two. Lobes are further subdivided into units called segments–which can be likened to segments of an orange. Originally, lung cancer was treated by removing an entire lung (we can survive with about 35% lung function). In attempts to refine surgical methods, a 1995 study showed that removing a lobe of a lung was 3 times better at preventing cancer recurrence (AKA cancer coming back after being removed) than removing only a lung segment, and so that’s been standard practice since.