What Are the Treatments for Lung Leiomyosarcoma?

Lung leiomyosarcoma is a rare disease that consists of tumors in the soft tissues of your body, such as the lungs. It is most often malignant; however, there are treatments to remove these tumors.

Surgery

• Surgery can be used to obtain soft tissue for diagnosis and for removing the actual tumor.

Chemotherapy

• Chemotherapy consists of many cancer-fighting drugs that attack the cancerous soft tissue cells on the lung.

Radiation

• Radiation oncologists may apply high-energy radiation beams to the tissues containing sarcoma to try to shrink or kill the cancer cells.

Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT)

• This delivers beams of radiation to the cancer cells during surgery, allowing doctors to administer high levels of radiation to the tumor without exposing organs nearby.

Brachytherapy

• Often used post-surgery, brachytherapy allows for a higher than normal dose of radiation to be placed near the tumor. The radiation source is placed within the body near the tumor or within a body cavity and may be permanently left in place.