Lahey Cancer Institute
Clinical experts of Lahey Cancer Institute offer research, training and education in addition to personalized patient care using advanced treatments at locations convenient to you.
Lung Cancer Care
Prompt care for cancers of the lungs
Expert Care for All Types of Lung Cancer
Lahey Clinic offers a world-class screening and treatment program for all types of cancer in the lungs. Thanks to new and highly specialized technology and surgical techniques, we can successfully treat lung cancer, especially when found in an early stage.
Lung cancer is a type of thoracic (chest) cancer. And Lahey has some of the best thoracic surgeons and pulmonary specialists — right here, close to home.
Our Personalized Care Philosophy
We know that lung cancer can be a frightening diagnosis. But when you seek care from Lahey specialists, you have access to the latest treatments for lung cancer, which are better than ever. In fact, thanks to advancing lung cancer treatment options — like robotic lung resection performed by our thoracic surgeons — survival rates continue to increase.
Most, but not all, patients who develop lung cancer have smoked cigarettes at some point in their lives. Heavy tobacco use, whether in the past or currently, can place patients at much greater risk. Early detection of lung cancer, as with many cancers, is key to improving survivals rates.
Lahey is a pioneer in the early detection of lung cancer. We have the largest clinical lung cancer screening program in the country. Our thoracic specialists have vast experience and highly specialized expertise in treating lung conditions.
We are committed to offering the very latest treatments for lung cancer. And we also are committed to prevention with our Tobacco Cessation Program.
About Lung and Pulmonary Cancers
Lung cancer conditions treated at our Thoracic Oncology Center include:
- Cancerous tumors in the lungs and airways, such as:
- Carcinoma in situ of airway – Cancer in the lungs
- Carcinoid tumors – Rare, slow-growing cancer
- Tracheal tumors – Cancer in the trachea, or windpipe
- Non-small cell and small cell lung cancers – The two main types of lung cancer
- Metastatic tumors: Also called lung metastases, these cancers began elsewhere in the body and spread to the chest.
- Pleural effusions: Cancer causes a buildup of fluid around the lungs.
- Thymoma: A tumor in the center of the chest, along with other mediastinal tumors.
- Mesothelioma: Cancer of the tissue that lines the lungs, heart and chest wall.
Personalized Care in the Thoracic Oncology Center
If your test results show lung cancer or chest cancer, know that you’re in good hands. Our team gathers each week in a multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Clinic. Through these tumor boards, we review your medical images and slides, medical history and specific type of cancer.
We gather in this way so that experts in different medical specialty areas all reach a consensus on the best steps in your care. This team approach ensures you’ll have the most effective treatment plan possible.
Your care team may include:
- Medical and radiation oncologists
- Radiologists
- Thoracic surgeons
- Interventional pulmonologists
- Pathologists
- Other experts, as needed
Also, we’ll pair you with a nurse navigator to help guide you through cancer treatment decisions. They will provide support along with details about your condition and care plan.
The Full Scope of Lung Cancer Care
You can count on personal care and attention from teams at Lahey through every step of your journey. We offer survivorship programs as well as pulmonary rehabilitation and cancer rehab services.
If you’d like to speak with someone about your personal risk, we offer genomic testing for lung cancer.
More About Lung Cancer Care
Diagnosing Lung Cancer at Its Earliest Stages
Our care starts with a lung cancer screening using the latest imaging techniques. Lahey uses highly advanced technology to accurately diagnose your condition. This includes CT, MRI, PET, nuclear medicine and PET/CT. At Lahey you can get a low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening to detect lung cancers at the earliest stage possible.
Our interventional pulmonologists use a highly sophisticated mapping and tracking system to perform biopsies (take a tissue sample). These procedures are called endobronchial ultrasound-guided (EBUS) and navigational bronchoscopy-guided biopsies. They can be very effective for small tumors in the lungs where it’s difficult or dangerous to perform a biopsy deep in the chest.
Advanced Lung Cancer Treatments
At Lahey, we offer a number of different treatment options to treat lung cancer. Rest assured that your treatment plan is highly personalized to ensure your best outcome based on factors unique to you and your condition.
While we offer highly effective therapies, you can speak with your doctor to learn if you may qualify for a cancer clinical trial. Joining a research effort through a cancer study could give you access to an emerging new treatment option.
Interventional Pulmonology Procedures
Lahey specialists are experts in a range of interventional pulmonary techniques, such as:
- Airway stenting
- Airway tumor debulking with laser, electrocautery, or argon plasma coagulation therapy
- Cryotherapy
- Medical thoracoscopy and pleurodesis
- Photodynamic therapy
- Pleural catheter placement
Radiation Therapy
We offer a full range of radiation therapy techniques to treat lung cancer, such as:
- Stereotactic body radiosurgery
- Brachytherapy
- External radiation, also called external beam radiation
- Intensity modulated radiation therapy
- Image-guided radiation therapy
- Hyperfractionated radiation therapy
Chemotherapy
Cytotoxic chemotherapy remains a key treatment for patients with resected lung cancers as well as more advanced cancers. Supportive medications, such as new anti-nausea medicines, allow chemotherapy to have fewer side effects than in the past.
Your care plan could call for neoadjuvant, definitive or adjuvant chemotherapy treatments. Neoadjuvant chemo shrinks tumors before surgery. Adjuvant chemo kills any remaining cancerous cells after surgery. Definitive chemo is often the primary treatment for advanced lung cancer when surgery isn’t an option.
The chemotherapy infusion units throughout Lahey enhance patient comfort and ease of treatment. Family members or friends may stay with you during chemotherapy. Many of our locations provide free television service and free WiFi.
Chemotherapy treatment at Lahey reflects the Oncology Care Model (OCM) designed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That model ensures we provide you with a wide variety of special support services, such as 24/7 access to our providers.
Biologic and Molecular-Targeted Therapies
Molecular-targeted cancer therapies are drugs or other substances that block the spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules involved in tumor growth. It includes drugs that:
- Interfere with the signals needed for cell growth or the blood vessels that feed a tumor.
- Promote the death of specific cancer cells.
- Stimulate the immune system to destroy specific cancer cells.
- Deliver toxic drugs to cancer cells.
Targeted drugs can address lung cancer cells with a certain genetic makeup. Because every cancer is unique, we will perform a careful analysis of the genetic makeup of your specific cancer to match you with the most effective targeted treatment for the best possible outcome.
We carefully analyze molecules of lung tumors we remove during minimally invasive surgery. Often, we use this molecular gene-typing to learn how susceptible they are to today’s newer targeted drugs.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy for cancer involves using substances either made in the human body or in a lab to boost your body’s immune system. The goal is to stimulate your body’s immune system to fight against your particular type of cancer.
Lung Cancer Surgery
Our surgeons are nationally recognized as experts in robot-assisted thoracic surgery, putting Lahey at the forefront of robotic lung cancer surgery. In fact, surgeons from other health systems come to us for training and education on our highly specialized techniques.
Lahey has invested in multiple state-of-the-art surgical robots so patients with lung cancer have new treatment options. Our technology is optimized for performing thoracic surgery, giving surgeons better range of motion, better visibility, and the ability to perform specialized procedures through incisions that are smaller than ever before.
One of these state-of-the-art procedures is robotic lung resection for lung cancer. This procedure is a highly effective treatment for early-stage lung cancer.
