If Lung Cancer Is In One Lung Or Two Lungs!

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1. The cancer in one lung has caused a metastatic (secondary) cancer, a condition of when it has spread to a distant organ and causes a new secondary cancer growth such as in the distant lymph nodes, liver, bone, brain, or adrenal glands.
2. Or if it has caused a fluid accumulation around the affected lung or heart. And the fluid contains some cancer cells.

Stage IV of whether the cancer is in one lung or has spread into two lungs is difficult to treat. But in general, lung cancer in one lung is easier to treat than if the cancer cells have found in both lungs.

In either case, cancer can lead to breathlessness (a common symptom of lung cancer). But it’s usually more difficult to cope with this symptom if both of your lungs are affected by cancer.

Surgery is a common treatment option. It is used to remove parts of lung affected by cancer. There are a number of different methods to remove cancer with surgery. Some of these include:

Wedge resection

It is a procedure of surgery to remove only a small part /section of the lung. In early stage of the disease, the cancer has not affected large area of the lung. This is usually treated with a local treatment, and one of them can be with wedge resection surgery.

Segmental resection

If cancer has spread and affected larger area of the lung, the use of wedge resection is usually not effective enough. Another advanced surgery method is required. This can be with segmental resection, particularly true if the cancer has not affected an entire lobe of the lung.

Lobectomy

There are 5 main lobes found in the two lungs. If cancer has affected a whole lobe, a surgery called lobectomy is usually used to help remove an entire lobe of one lung.

Pneumonectomy

Sometimes, the cancer has spread and affected the whole of one lung. For this scenario, pneumonectomy may be suggested to remove the cancer at all (an entire lung).

Even though one of your lungs is completely removed, you should be able to breathe quite normally. But if you do concern about this, talk to your doctor before taking the surgery!

*Images credit to Mayo

All of these types of surgery can be used to help treat lung cancer if it is in one lung, depending how far it has grown and spread in the lung.

Surgery is quite rare to remove cancer that has spread into two lungs since this case usually has become advanced. Instead, systemic treatments are likely to be used as noted before.