What is best treatment option for lung cancer...surgery, targeted drugs or cehmo/radiation and why?

Staging: Treatment of lung cancer depends on the staging. Oncologist will decide what kind of treatment is necessary.

Sometimes only one: Sometimes all 3, but lung cancer is really several diseases depending upon the stage, and the type of cancer. The treatment tool box differs for each stage. So one of the most important pieces of information is accurately knowing the stage. A common error is misuse of the pet scan (a very useful test in general) as a substitute for biopsy, as opposed to a road MAP to knowing what to biopsy.

Personalized therapy: Will require more than 400 words to explain. Tx for lung ca is personalized, -individualized . To formulate plan - will need to know the type of lung cancer, the stage , the mollecular profiles /biology of the cancer cells, other prognostic factors , and other factors including age, overall medical condition, preferences etc. No one glove fits all. Please discuss with your oncologist.

Depends: Most important question is type (histology) of lung cancer: non-small cell vs small cell. Small cell is usually widespread and not amenable to surgery. Most common lung cancer is non-small cell. This almost always requires surgery for cure. Radiation, chemotherapy and/or biologic (targeted) treatments may be used in addition to surgery or by themselves if surgery is not possible, or if metastatic.

Depends on stage: In the medically fit individually, the standard of care upfront therapy for stage i -iib nsclc is surgery. For stage iiia either chemotherapy +/- radiation followed by surgery or chemoradiation alone. For stage iiia - iv, therapy is chemotherapy +/- radiation. Any of the chemotherapy options may be "targeted" as part of a clinical trial. For more info: http://bit.Ly/ygfoko.

Multidisciplinary: Standard of care for stage i -iib nsclc is surgery. For stage iiia either chemotherapy +/- radiation followed by surgery or chemoradiation alone. Treatment is best by multidisciplinary and individualized with a targeted approach. The patient's overall health/fitness, tumor type, and molecular/genetic specifics should be considered to formulate best approach.