Lung cancers are classified into two main groups: small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.
Radiotherapy plays an important part in treating both types of the disease, particularly non-small cell lung cancer. It can be given alone, following a course of chemotherapy, or together with chemotherapy – known as chemoradiotherapy or chemoradiation.
Advanced radiotherapy techniques including 4D planning, intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) are routinely used. Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy, SABR, is a relatively new technique used to treat smaller tumours that are located away from the centre of the chest. SABR involves significantly fewer treatments of greater dose, and means that the overall treatment time is much shorter.
Chemotherapy can also be given after lung cancer surgery to reduce the risk of the cancer returning. Or, if the cancer has spread, it can help improve symptoms and keep the cancer under control.
The whole range of chemotherapies, and the newer targeted therapies such as erlotinib (Tarceva™), gefininb (Iressa™), and bevacizumab (Avastin™) are available at the Clatterbridge Private Clinic.