After you're diagnosed with lung cancer, your doctor or oncologist will discuss your treatment options with you.

Your treatment options will depend on the stage of your cancer, or how far the cancer has spread.

The two main types of lung cancer — small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) — are treated differently.

Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment

Treatment options for SCLC include:

Chemotherapy: This is the main treatment for most people with SCLC. In chemotherapy, you'll receive a combination of anti-cancer drugs.

Some chemo drugs are taken by mouth. Others are injected into a vein (by IV).

Lung cancer patients typically receive four to six cycles of chemotherapy. Each cycle usually lasts three to four weeks.

Cycles consist of periods of treatment (one to three days), followed by periods of rest to let your body recover from the treatments.

Radiation therapy: This treatment uses high-energy beams (such as X-rays) to kill cancer cells.

The beams come from a machine outside the body and are focused on the tumor.

People with SCLC may receive radiation therapy together with chemotherapy, or they may get radiation after their chemo is finished.

Surgery: Surgically removing a tumor may be an option for SCLC in its earliest stages, when the cancer is in a single lung and has not spread to other organs.

The American Cancer Society estimates that SCLC is found at this early stage in fewer than 1 in 20 patients.

Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment

Treatment options for NSCLC include:

Surgery: Surgically removing the lung cancer tumor is often the best option when NSCLC is in its early stages.

Radiation and/or chemotherapy may be used along with surgery.

Radiation therapy: Radiation is sometimes the main treatment for NSCLC.

Your doctor may recommend radiation instead of surgery if the lung tumor cannot be removed due to its size or location in the lung.

Chemotherapy is sometimes used along with radiation.

Chemotherapy: Chemo may be used in different situations depending on the stage of NSCLC.

Some people receive chemotherapy before surgery to shrink a tumor.

Others get chemo after surgery to kill any cancer cells that may be left behind.

Radiation therapy is often used with chemo before or after surgery.

Sometimes, chemotherapy is the main treatment for advanced stage NSCLC.

Targeted therapy: Your doctor may recommend medications that target certain cancer cells.

These drugs are different from chemotherapy in the way they work.

Targeted therapy is used most often in people with advanced lung cancer.

These drugs are often given along with chemotherapy. Common targeted therapy drugs for NSCLC include:

Immunotherapy: This treatment uses medicines that stimulate the body's immune system to target and kill cancer cells more effectively.

Immunotherapy can be used to treat some forms of NSCLC.

Lung Cancer Survival

Survival rates are often used to talk about the outlook for a person with lung cancer.

The five-year survival rate refers to the percentage of people who live at least five years after their cancer is diagnosed.

Some people may live much longer than five years.

The five-year survival rate for all lung cancers is about 18 percent. More than half of people with lung cancer die within a year of being diagnosed.

The five-year survival rate for lung cancer caught at an early stage is about 54 percent. It's about 4 percent for cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.