One size does not fit all for lung cancer, says AdventHealth physician, urges screening

Detecting lung cancer has come a long way in the past 20 years – it’s not “one size fits all” and there are innovative ways to treat it.

“The DNA of the cancer has undergone certain alterations that develop targets, which has allowed us to create targeted therapies and they are more highly effective than chemotherapies,” said Dr. Mark Socinski, an oncologist specializing in lung cancer and is the executive director of the AdventHealth Cancer Institute. “We also now understand how cancers can evade the patient’s immune system, so we can now manipulate the immune system with immunotherapy in selected patients.”

According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the US, accounting for about one in five. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined.

“Each patient gets personalized treatment – right treatment, right patient, right time,” said Dr. Socinski.

Socinski urges screening to detect lung cancer early and talks about the groundbreaking targeted treatment options that are positively changing patients’ lives in this Healthy Connections interview.