How successful is a lung transplant in the case of lung cancer?

Lung carcinoma also known as lung cancer is a kind of malignant tumour which leads to rapid cell division or uncontrolled cell growth in the tissues of the lungs. The growth can further out from the lungs by the process of metastasis to various tissues and spread other organs. There are many solutions to this but having a lung transplant is considered as a contradictory approach to the issue, the view regarding this was such that it will lead to even more developments in the ongoing issue. Recent discoveries and researches have however developed a different picture for this approach of treatment for lung cancer by believing it to be a suitable measure for the treatment of lung cancer especially in the patients diagnosed with early stages of the disease. The procedure of lung transplant has gained popularity in the past few years due to the up to date knowledge of medical professionals and high tech technologies used in the cancer treatment in Delhi.

In spite of all this, most of the cases, patients with lung cancer cannot have a lung transplant, single or both, due to one or other issue concerning their health. According to the cancer specialists of India lung transplant is only a local treatment to the issue and it only focuses on the specific area or region of the body but in majority of the cases when a diagnosis of the disease is done, the malignant cells have already spread to the nearby organs and tissues which becomes impossible to get rid of with just a lung transplant. Due to this issue, systemic treatments are more popular and preferred for cancer treatments. Some of the systemic treatments conducted are chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy. Besides this, there are often major chances of the reoccurrence of this issue in the patient treated through a lung transplant.

Lung cancer treatment in India or any other part of India relies on lung transplants in three major scenarios or conditions met by the case being handled. Dr. S Hukku is an expert in this area whose expertise in carcinoma enabled him to specify them.

• Bronchoalveolar carcinoma of the lung, which means that the malignant cells are present in more than one region of one or both the lungs. This is a very rare case and is present usually in people who have never smoked.  It accounts for less than five per cent of the total cases of lung carcinoma.

• Early stage lung cancer, in this case, lung transplant, is an option because either the conventional treatments like lobectomy cannot be performed due to lack of proper functioning of lungs or prevalence of later stage lung disease such as COPD.

• Metastatic cancer of the lung from various regions of the body, this means that the cancer is metastatic only to the lungs. This scenario is the rarest of them all.

In all these cases lung transplant can be used because non-surgical treatments like radiation oncology in India will not be of much use. But even before referring to and sharing the decision, oncologists and medical professionals need to be sure about the exact developments in the case, the current stage of cancer, areas affected, amount of damage done, other health issues and associated risks.

Lung transplant as a treatment intervention has both curative goal and palliative goal. In the case of curative goal, the major theme is to help the patient grow above their disease and treat them completely. In palliative goal, the idea is to prolong their life as much as possible.