The Lung Cancer Center

A Team Approach To The Best Lung Cancer Care

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Within the Lung Cancer Center at the CooperCancer Institute, teams of doctors work together to improve the outcome for each patient. “Our treatment of lung cancer is multidisciplinary. A team of pulmonologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and surgeons works together, providing optimal, individualized patient care,” said Medical Oncologist James Philip Stevenson, M.D.

Cooper doctors develop and implement cutting-edge approaches to preventing, diagnosing, and treating lung cancer. Each week, they review cases and develop treatment plans, which include combinations of systemic treatments [chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted agents], surgery, and radiation therapy.

Minimally invasive surgery for biopsies is available at Cooper. Video-assisted thorascopy can be more accurate than traditional surgery and requires much smaller incisions. “Patients recover quicker [2 weeks vs. 6 weeks], have a shorter hospital stay [2- 3 days vs. 1 week], and are not in pain as long as with traditional surgery,” said Dr. Lotano.

Cooper is the only center in South Jersey that offers a type of radiation therapy called stereotactic body radiosurgery. “Stereotactic body radiosurgery requires fewer treatments, improves tumor eradication, and decreases normal tissue damage over standard radiation therapy,” said Dr. Hughes. It’s done on an outpatient basis.

Clinical trials available at Cooper provide access to cutting-edge therapy in all areas of cancer care—from radiation therapy to chemotherapy. Cooper is the only site in the country for a study combining a drug designed to inhibit tumor blood vessel growth [bevacizumab or Avastin‘] with two standard chemotherapy drugs [pemetrexed and carboplatin] in patients with advanced non-small stage lung cancer who have not had prior chemotherapy.

In a National Cancer Institute-sponsored study, Cooper researchers are studying a pre-operative approach combining chemotherapy and high dose radiation therapy followed by surgery and subsequent radiation for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The Lung Cancer Center also offers lung cancer prevention services such as smoking cessation programs, nutritional counseling, and clinical trials in prevention.

For more information about the Lung Cancer Center or to schedule an appointment with a Cooper University Physician, please call 1-800-8-COOPER (1-800-826-6737) to speak with a member of our physician referral and information service.