What is Lung Cancer Surgery?
The right lung has three lobes and the left has two, each with its own bronchus, artery and veins. An anatomical resection divides those structures at their origin and removes the lobe or segment as a unit, while the mediastinal node stations beside the airway are sampled for staging. Segmentectomy preserves function for a small peripheral tumour, lobectomy remains the standard anatomical resection, sleeve resection can avoid removing a whole lung when the airway is involved, and pneumonectomy is kept for tumours that cannot otherwise be cleared.
