Thoracic Surgery948 48th Street Brooklyn, NY 11219
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Phone: (718) 283-7686
Lung Cancer Treatment
Maimonides Cancer Center
6300 Eighth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11220
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Chief, Thoracic Surgery
(718) 283-7686
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Thoracic Surgeon (718) 283-7686
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Director, Minimally Invasive General Thoracic Surgery (718) 283-7686
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About Thoracic Cancers
Thoracic oncology deals with cancers of the chest, including lung cancer, esophageal cancer, malignant mesothelioma, metastatic cancers to the chest, and mediastinal tumors such as thymoma, germ cell tumors, and lymphoma.
Lung cancer, the most common of these cancers, is divided into two basic types: non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, over 220,000 new cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed this year. Lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. However, treatments for lung cancer are improving, and today there are more than 400,000 people alive who have been diagnosed with lung cancer at some point.
Esophageal cancer is relatively uncommon in the United States, with the American Cancer Society estimating that 16,980 new cases will be diagnosed this year. While the disease is difficult to cure, treatment and survival rates are improving, especially for people who are diagnosed at an early stage.
Malignant mesothelioma is a fairly rare cancerous tumor in the lining of the lung and chest cavity (pleura) or lining of the abdomen (peritoneum) that is typically due to long-term asbestos exposure. According to the American Cancer Society, about 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed each year in the United States, and rates of mesotheliomas have been slowly decreasing since the early 1990s.
Mediastinal tumors, which include thymoma, germ cell tumors, and lymphoma, are also fairly rare, and form in the area the separates the lungs, which contains that heart, large blood vessels, windpipe, thymus gland, and connective tissues. Metastatic cancers of the chest are cancers that start somewhere else in the body and spread to the chest area, such as the lung or the pleura (the thin membrane surrounding the lungs).
While many of these cancers have a serious prognosis, ongoing research is being performed by physicians and researchers at Maimonides Cancer Center and other medical centers in an effort to find better diagnostic and treatment therapies and improve care for patients with thoracic cancers.
These websites are also excellent resources for information on thoracic cancers: