Lung Metastases: Symptoms, Treatment & more
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Our experts offer a comprehensive suite of image-guided techniques to treat cancers of the liver, kidney, lung, musculoskeletal and other solid malignancies. Call to schedule a consultation or procedure.
What are lung metastases?
Cancer cells can break away from where they first formed and travel through the blood or lymph system to form new tumors (metastases) in other parts of the body. Metastases of the lung are tumors in the lung that originated from a primary tumor located in a different part of the body.
Metastatic cancer has the same name as the primary cancer. For example, breast cancer that spreads to the lung is called metastatic breast cancer, not lung cancer. It is treated as a stage IV breast cancer rather than a primary lung cancer. Limited metastases to the lung can be treated with resection or ablation.
Risk Factors
- Primary cancer
Symptoms
- Often asymptomatic
- Cough
- Shortness of breath
- Hemoptysis (coughing blood)
- Fatigue
Diagnosis and Screenings
- Chest x-ray
- CT scan
- Sputum cytology
- Biopsy of the lung
- Bronchoscopy
- Thoracoscopy
- Thoracentesis
- Light and electron microscopy
- Immunohistochemistry
Treatments
In addition to traditional surgical resection, chemotherapy, targeted systemic therapy, and radiation therapy, our interventional oncology team also offer the following image-guided minimal invasive therapies:
- Theraml ablation, including Radiofrequency and microwave
- Cryoablation
- Immune modulation therapy
- Fiducial implants and/or Brachytherapy, in collaboration with Radiation Oncology
For More Information:
For more information or to schedule an appointment with one of our IR physicians, please call 310-481-7545.