What are other local treatments if I do not want surgery or can't have surgery?

What are other local treatments if I do not want surgery or can't have surgery?

Jay M. Lee (Surgical Director, Thoracic Oncology Program, UCLA) gives expert video advice on: What are other local treatments if I do not want surgery or can't have surgery?; How does chemotherapy cure lung cancer?; How does radiation cure lung cancer? and more...

There's a number of non-operative treatments out there if the patient doesn't desire surgery or cannot have surgery because of a number of other reasons. External beam radiation where high energy X-Rays are focused onto the lung tumour can kill off cancer cells. Other types of radiation which is very focused is called stereotactic radial surgery which limits the damage to the surrounding normal lung. The other modality, another local treatment would be radial frequency ablation. This utilizes radio frequency waves to heat and kill a tumour and also to minimize the surrounding lung tissue. So both of these later two modalities are ideal for patients with marginal lung function or poor lung function who are not candidates for surgery.