The majority of my work is with patients who have early lung cancer. In the earliest stages, there are many treatment options available including surgery and radiotherapy.
Two trials suggested survival with radiotherapy is better in early stage lung cancer, however the studies were small and closed prematurely as they could not recruit enough patients to complete it.[1] Moreover there is no long term results to confirm the medium to long term findings, highlighting the difficulties in the interpretation of incomplete clinical trials.[2]
If you decide to have surgery for early stage lung cancer, you will have a choice if you would like the procedure done through keyhole surgery, open surgery or participate in a clinical trial (VIOLET) comparing the two outcomes - as we are looking to quantify any differences in outcomes between the two techniques.
At any stage, please feel free to contact me to discuss your options.
References
1. Chang JY et al. Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy versus lobectomy for operable stage I non-small-cell lung cancer: a pooled analysis of two randomised trials. The Lancet Oncology. 2015;16:630-637.
2. Treasure T et al. SABR in early operable lung cancer: time for evidence. The Lancet Oncology. 2015;16:597-598.