Lung Cancer

More people die from lung cancer than from any other cancer worldwide and it remains one of the most common cancers in the United States, accounting for 15 percent of all cancers diagnosed and nearly a third of cancer deaths. It strikes thousands of women, taking twice as many lives as breast cancer each year.

Many who get lung cancer were cigarette smokers, but non-smokers develop it too. One of the difficult aspects of the disease is that it may be years before lung cancer symptoms emerge. By the time it's diagnosed, about half the patients have advanced disease, meaning the cancer has already spread to other parts of the body.

The Thoracic Oncology Clinic and Thoracic Surgery Program at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at Mount Zion use many approaches for treatment — combining surgery, radiation and chemotherapy — for conditions, including esophageal cancer and mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer in the lining of the chest or abdomen. Other cancers treated include chest-wall cancers and mediastinal tumors in the cavity separating the lungs as well as tumors that spread to the lungs from other parts of the body.

These specialists of the thorax — the chest area between the neck and abdomen — also treat a spectrum of pulmonary diseases as well as benign conditions such as hyperhidrosis, which causes over-activity of the sweat glands and excessive sweating.

Visit our online bookstore to see books written and recommended by the staff of the UCSF Cancer Resource Center.

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Medical Center.
Last updated July 31, 2008