As part of European Lung Cancer Week, Dr Joseba Rebollo, an oncology specialist at and , reminds us that lung nodules smaller than two centimetres are often curable with surgery if detected early. Therefore, he recommends that smokers over the age of fifty undergo a lung CT scan every two years in order to detect these mostly asymptomatic pulmonary nodules at an early stage. Lung cancer is classified into two main types: small cell and non-small cell.
Small cell lung cancer, which accounts for 30% of cases, is highly related to smoking and tends to spread quickly. “It can be treated with chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy, achieving cure rates of around 20% in cases of limited disease, which is when the disease can be contained within a radiotherapy field,” states Dr Manuel Sureda, an in Torrevieja and an expert in oncological immunology. On the other hand, non-small cell lung cancer is the most common type, and its treatments greatly benefit from genetic tumour studies.
“Approximately 50% of these tumours have specific genetic alterations that allow the use of targeted therapies for that specific alteration. Moreover, immunotherapy, which has revolutionised the treatment of this type of lung cancer, has significantly improved survival rates in patients eligible for it, even in cases of advanced disease,” Dr Sureda adds. Thanks to the minimally invasive approach assisted by Da Vinci robotic surgery, interventions that once required open surgery and long hos.