In addition to chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy, lung cancer treatment may include several types of surgery.

After a lung cancer diagnosis, your doctor will determine the next steps in your treatment. Lung cancer is when abnormal cells develop and divide in the lungs. Although the disease starts in the lungs, it can spread to other parts of the body. So it’s important to detect it early and receive treatment.

Treatment for lung cancer varies. Options include chemotherapy drugs or radiation to destroy cancer cells. Another option is immunotherapy, which can boost your immune system to fight the disease.

Your doctor may also recommend surgery, often as a first-line for lung cancer if the tumor is small enough and hasn’t spread. Other factors for surgery depend on a tumor’s location within the lungs, and whether it has spread to nearby organs and tissue.

Surgery removes cancerous tumors from the body. It’s often used to treat early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). If your doctor believes surgery is the best approach, you may have one of the following procedures.

The lungs are divided into five lobes; three on the right lung and two on the left lung. Cancer can develop in any part of the lungs. If cancer is in one or more of your lobes, your doctor may perform a lobectomy to remove the lobes containing cancerous cells. This surgery is an option when one or two lobes need removal.

Sometimes, treating lung cancer requires removing the entire affected lung. This may be necessary if cancer affects more than two lobes, such as all three of your right lobes or both of your left lobes. This surgery eliminates cancer from your body so that it doesn’t continue to grow or spread.

This procedure isn’t recommended for everyone. Because this surgery takes out one lung, you’ll have to undergo pulmonary function testing beforehand. These tests measure how well your lungs work and will ensure you’ll have enough healthy lung tissue remaining after surgery. Healthy lung tissue allows for sufficient breathing.

During this procedure, your surgeon makes an incision in your side. Then they remove your lung after separating your tissue and ribs.

A pneumonectomy can treat lung cancer, but it’s a complicated procedure. Your doctor may only recommend this procedure if there’s a chance of achieving remission. If you have advanced cancer or it has already metastasized, removing the lung may not help.

Another option is removing only a section of diseased tissue from the lungs. Your doctor may recommend this procedure when tumors are small and haven’t spread beyond the lungs. Options include:

  • Wedge resection: This removes a small piece of lung tissue from one or more lobes.
  • Segmentectomy: This removes a larger section of lung tissue, but doesn’t remove an entire lobe.
  • Sleeve resection: This surgery is an alternative to removing the entire lung. It preserves part of the lung by removing cancerous areas, including sections of the bronchus or air passage.

Surgery can be an effective treatment for lung cancer. But your doctor may also recommend chemotherapy or radiation after surgery. This treatment is a precaution and helps kill microscopic cancer cells, which could spread to your lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small, bean-shaped organs that play a crucial role in your body’s immune response by trapping bacteria, viruses, and other harmful substances.

Besides the different surgeries for lung cancer, there are different ways to perform these procedures.

Open surgery (thoracotomy)

In a thoracotomy, the surgeon makes an incision below the nipple and around the back underneath the shoulder blade. This type of surgery is used when removing the entire lung.

Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS)

This is a minimally invasive surgery to remove cancer without opening the chest. This is used to remove lobes or sections of the lungs.

A surgeon makes a small surgical incision. Next, they insert a long tube with an attached camera into the chest. They can then perform the surgery while watching an image of your lungs on a screen.

Robotic-assisted surgery

Robotic-assisted surgery is another minimally invasive procedure to remove cancerous cells. With this surgery, your surgeon performs the procedure while seated at a control unit.

The surgical team inserts a tiny video camera into a small incision. Surgical instruments attached to a robotic hand are used during the procedure. Your surgeon guides the robotic hand from the control unit. This surgery can assist with hard-to-reach tumors.

According to a 2023 trial with nearly 700 participants, those with early stage NSCLC who had more limited surgery to remove only diseased portions of their lungs lived as long without their cancer returning as participants who had an entire lobe of the lung removed. Additionally, the amount of people still alive 5 years after the surgery was about 80% in both groups.

A 2023 study of 84 women who underwent either open surgery or video-assisted thoracic surgery showed that both groups had similar 5-year survival rates, though the group that underwent the less invasive procedure had shorter hospital stays and quicker recoveries.

And researchers of a 2021 review of 19 studies encompassing more than 47,000 participants noted that less invasive techniques were better than open surgery for reducing short-term death in people with early and advanced-stage lung cancer, and for older people. Despite these benefits, there was no significant difference in long-term survival rates.

Lung cancer surgery is a major operation, and it can take weeks or months to recover, depending on the procedure. Although effective, surgery does carry some risks, such as:

It’s important to discuss these risks with your doctor. Another possible long-term complication is shortness of breath with certain activities. This is especially true if you have a lung disease along with lung cancer, such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis.

Surgery is an effective treatment for lung cancer, but it’s not recommended for everyone. This treatment can cure early stage lung cancer that hasn’t spread. But even when surgery is successful, your doctor may suggest additional therapy like chemotherapy or radiation.

The sooner you begin treatment for lung cancer, the better. Speak with your doctor to understand your surgical options.