Radiation Therapy for Lung Cancer

Radiation therapy can be used during or after surgery for small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.

Our radiation oncologists work as part of your multidisciplinary lung cancer care team to create a personalized treatment plan for your lung cancer.  

OHSU radiation medicine doctors are experts in external and internal beam radiation therapy for lung cancer, including stereotactic body radiation therapy. 


One of the challenges to delivering radiation therapy to the lungs is due to the movement of the tumor that occurs when the patient breaths.  Our treatment goal is to deliver sufficient amounts of radiation to the tumor cells to destroy them while protecting the surrounding healthy tissue from the damaging effect of the radiation. 

Our doctors have taken a leading role in an exciting new technology called “gating” that allows them to time radiation treatment to your breathing pattern. This method allows us to deliver radiation to the tumor when it is in the best range for treatment while avoiding radiation to surrounding normal tissue.