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Surviving Lung Cancer: India’s Advanced Treatment Options
Lung cancer basically affects the lungs, which are two spongy organs inside your chest. The primary function of your lungs is to breathe, taking in oxygen when you inhale and releasing carbon dioxide when you exhale. Unfortunately, lung cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide.
If you, too, have lung cancer and are exploring treatment options, India should be at the top of your list. Here, we will let you know why India is the best country to get the treatment done and how you can avail of the best lung cancer treatment in India.
But let us first get into some details of what lung cancer is.
What is lung cancer?
Lung cancer is a disease that the uncontrolled division of your cells causes. Your cells typically decide to make more copies of themselves. But sometimes, they start dividing abnormally, thus creating masses and tumors that do not let your organs function properly.
The disease starts in your lungs, usually in the bronchi or alveoli ( small units of lungs where oxygen and carbon di oxide are exchanged) . Lung cancer is fatal, but effective diagnosis and treatment can improve the outlook.
Types of Lung cancer
Type 1: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
It is the most common type of lung cancer, also known as NSCLC. Its subtypes are:
● Adenocarcinoma
● Squamous cell carcinoma
● Large Cell Carcinoma
Type 2: Small Cell Lung Cancer
This cancer is most often referred to as oat cell cancer. It grows and spreads faster than NSCLC. In most people, this type of lung cancer is diagnosed when it has spread beyond the lungs. Since cancer proliferates, it responds well to chemo and radiation therapy. It occurs mainly in heavy smokers and is less common than non-small cell lung cancer.
Staging in Lung Cancer
The lung cancer staging determines how far the cancer has spread and how severe it is. The most basic form of staging is:
● Localised: When cancer is within a limited lung area
● Regional: When cancer has spread to nearby tissues or lymph nodes.
● Distant: When cancer has spread to other parts of the body
Specific ways of staging NSCLC
● Occult or Hidden: In this stage, the cancer does not appear in the scans, but cancerous cells appear in mucus.
● Stage 0: The abnormal cells are only in the top layers of the airway lining
● Stage 1: A tumor is present in the lungs, is 4 cm or under, and has not spread to other body parts.
● Stage 2: A cancer is 7 cm or under and has spread to nearby tissues and lymph nodes
● Stage 3: The cancer has spread to the lymph nodes and has reached other parts of the lungs
● Stage 4: The cancer has spread to bones and brain
Stages of SCLC
This type of lung cancer has its stages. The stages are:
● Limited stage SCLC: It is confined to one lung and can sometimes be in the lymph nodes in the middle of the chest or above the collarbone on the same side.
● Extensive stage SCLC: It is widespread throughout one lung or has spread to the other lung, lymph nodes on the opposite side, or other body parts.
Symptoms of lung cancer
The primary symptoms of lung cancer are:
● A cough that doesn’t go away and gets worse with time
● Shortness of breath
● Chest pain
● Wheezing
● Coughing up blood
● Loss of appetite
● Unexplained weight loss
● Fatigue
● Shoulder pain
● Swelling in face, neck, and arms
Complications of Lung Cancer
Lung cancer can lead to several complications. They are:
● High risk of infection
● Loss of lung function
● Spitting up blood
● Spinal compression
● Heart blockage
● Nerve pain
● Trouble swallowing
● Kidney dysfunction
● Neutropenia ( when your body does not have enough neutrophils to protect you from infection)
Who is at risk?
Lung cancer can affect anyone, but certain factors raise the risk of getting it:
● If you smoke a lot
● When you inhale the smoke released by cigarettes, you get exposed to the same cancer-causing agents
● Family history of lung cancer
● Being exposed to asbestos, arsenic, chromium, beryllium, nickel, soot
● HIV Infection
● Air pollution
How to detect lung cancer : Diagnosis and Tests
Your healthcare provider may use many tools to make a diagnosis:
● A medical history, which includes asking about your symptoms
● A family history
● A physical exam
● Imaging tests, such as a chest X-ray or chest CT scan
● Lab tests, including tests of your blood and sputum
● A biopsy of the lung
If you do have lung cancer, your provider will do other tests to find out how far it has spread through the lungs, lymph nodes, and the rest of the body. This is called staging. Knowing the type and stage of lung cancer you have helps your provider decide what kind of treatment you need.
Lung Cancer Treatment options
The primary treatment of lung cancer is surgery, where the tumor is removed, and chemotherapy and radiation are used to kill the cancer cells.
Treatment options for NSCLC Include:
● Stage 1: This surgery removes the portion of the lung which is all you need. The doctor may also recommend chemotherapy if there is a risk for the cancer to return. Lung cancer is most treatable at this stage.
● Stage 2: In this stage, you will need surgery to remove a part or all of your lung. You will also be recommended chemotherapy.
● Stage 3: You will require a combination of chemotherapy, surgery ( effective in specific situations), and radiation to treat cancer.
● Stage 4: Options include surgery (effective in specific situations), radiation chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy.
The options for SCLC also include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. In most cases, the cancer will be too advanced for surgery.
If you’re diagnosed with lung cancer, a team of tumor board will likely manage your care, including:
● a surgeon who specializes in the chest and lungs (thoracic surgeon)
● a lung specialist (pulmonologist)
● a medical oncologist
● a radiation oncologist
Discuss all your treatment options before making a decision. Your doctors will coordinate care and keep each other informed. Consider discussing clinical trials with your doctor.
Understanding treatment options in detail
Surgery
Surgery is mainly recommended when NSCLC has not spread and SCLC is limited to only a single tumor. Your surgeon in India will remove the cancer and a small amount of healthy tissue around it to make sure that no cancer cells are left behind. Sometimes, the doctors remove only a part or whole part of the lung so that the cancer doesn’t come back.
Radiation Therapy
In radiation, high-energy beams are used to kill the cancer cells. It can be used to make the surgery more effective.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a combination of multiple medications that are specifically designed to stop the growth of cancer cells. It can be given before or after the surgery or with other medicines like immunotherapy.
Targeted Drug Therapy
In some people with NSCLC, lung cancer cells have specific mutations that help the cancer grow. Particular drugs target these mutations to slow down or destroy cancer cells. Other drugs, called angiogenesis inhibitors, can keep the tumor from creating new blood vessels, which the cancer cells need to grow.
Immunotherapy
Our bodies usually recognize cells that are damaged or harmful and destroy them. Cancer has ways to hide from the immune system to prevent destruction. Immunotherapy reveals cancer cells to your immune system so your body can fight lung cancer.
Treatments to ease symptoms (palliative care)
Some lung cancer treatments are used to relieve symptoms like pain and difficulty breathing. These include therapies to reduce or remove tumors blocking airways and procedures to remove fluid from around your lungs and keep it from coming back.
Robotic Lung Cancer Treatment Surgery
Robotic lung cancer surgery means removing part of a lung using minimally invasive techniques, including Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) and Robotic Assisted Thoracic Surgery (RATS).
Robotic lung cancer treatment in India is one of the most advanced surgeries in the world. This is a minimally invasive surgery used to treat lung cancer by removing diseased tissue using the latest Da Vinci Xi Surgical Robot.
The Minimal Invasive with complete automation: Surgery for lung cancer, if carried out through high-end surgical robots, provides a magnified 3D view, and wristed instruments of robots allow surgeons to make precise, controlled movements without making larger incisions in the ribs. This allows the surgeon to remove the entire tumor mass present in the thoracic cavity (chest). Other advantages include:
● Faster recovery
● Less chance of infection post-surgery
● Early discharge
● The surgical outcome is unmatched
● Less bleeding as compared to open surgery
Understanding the risks and side effects
The side effects depend on the treatment you are given for lung cancer.
The possible side effects are:
Chemotherapy:
● Hair loss
● Nausea and vomiting
● Fatigue
Immunotherapy
● Fatigue
● Nausea, vomiting
● Joint pain
Radiation Therapy
● Shortness of breath
● Cough and pain
● Fatigue
Surgery
● Cough
● Fatigue
● Chest pain
Prevention of Lung Cancer
There are some ways that you can adopt in life to reduce the risk of lung cancer:
● Quit smoking if you do it.
● Avoid the use of any such substances that damage your lungs
● Eat a well-balanced diet
● Get screened for lung cancer if you are at high risk.
Outlook/Prognosis of Lung Cancer
Lung cancer can be fatal, but emerging treatments in India mean that many people now survive and recover from lung cancer, especially if they receive an early diagnosis.
Some factors affecting the likelihood of a positive outcome include:
● a person’s overall health
● their age
● the stage of cancer at diagnosis
● the type of cancer they have
It is not possible to predict precisely how cancer will affect an individual. Still, a healthcare professional in India can help you understand what you can expect by looking at the results of tests and other factors.
Lung Cancer Survival Rate
The survival rate of lung cancer depends on the stage at which the cancer is diagnosed. It also depends on the overall health of the patients and other factors too.
The statistics are as follows:
| NSCLC | SMLC |
| EARLY STAGE-63% | LIMITED STAGE: 20% |
| REGIONAL SPREAD: 35% | EXTENSIVE STAGE: 3% |
| DISTANT SPREAD: 7% |
Top Hospitals and Doctors Doing Lung Cancer Surgery in India
Best Surgical Oncologists
- Dr. Harit Chaturvedi– Max Institute of Cancer Care, Delhi NCR
- Dr Sameer Kaul– Indraprastha Apolo Hospital, Delhi
- Dr Niranjan Malik– Fortis, Delhi
- Dr Tapan Singh-Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon
Best Medical Oncologists
- Dr Manish Singhal– Indraprastha Apollo Hospital
- Dr Nitin Sood– Medanta Hospital, Delhi
- Dr Sunny Garg– Sanar Hospital, Delhi
Best Radiation Oncologists
- Dr. GK Jadhav-Indraprastha Hospital Delhi
- Dr Sapna Manocha Verma– Indraprastha Hospital Delhi
- Dr Shyam Singh Bisht– Medanta Hospital, Delhi
Lung cancer treatment cost Top Tier Hospitals in india
| Hospital | Robotic Surgery Cost |
| Indraprastha Apollo Hospital | 12000$ |
| Medanta the Medicity | 13000$ |
| Max Healthcare | 11000$ |
| Fortis Escorts Memorial Hospital | 11500$ |
| Artemis Hospital | 11000$ |
How can you avail yourself of the best Lung Cancer Treatment in India?
Cross Border Care is here for you if you are looking for trustworthy treatment consultants in India. We will help you find the best doctor in India and get your treatment done for JCI-accredited hospitals at the most pocket-friendly rates. Our team includes experienced medical professionals with you at each treatment step. So, if you are planning your lung cancer treatment in India, fill out the form below, and we will help you to choose the best doctor and hospital providing state-of-the-art technology.
