Can Non Small Cell Stage 4 Be Treated?

Transcript

We discussed the treatment of what we call curable or earlier stage non-small cell lung cancer, stages one through three. But unfortunately there is a stage four, which means it is incurable.

There’s one exception to stage four non-small cell lung cancer, so squamous cell, adenocarcinoma, large cell, anything that isn’t small cell. The one exception for stage four is that if you have a metastasis or recurrence in the brain only, especially if it’s only a few spots or one spot, you can still go for a curative treatment of that brain lesion with what we call stereotactic radiation, gamma knife, or just surgically taking it out.

We go with this approach because the central nervous system is kind of protected in a way from the rest of your body. So if you have that recurrence there, or if you were to take away the one spot in your brain, and that would actually make you a curable stage one, two or three, we still go for cure. That is the stage four setting where technically you may still be able to go for curative intent.

Key Takeaways

1. Unfortunately there is a stage four to non-small cell lung cancer, which means it is incurable.

2. The one exception for stage four is that if you have a metastasis or recurrence in the brain only, you can still try to cure that brain lesion with stereotactic radiation, gamma knife, or just surgically taking it out.

3. We go with this approach because the central nervous system is protected from the rest of your body.