Jessica S. Donington, MD of NYU Langone Health discusses pre-operative questions for NSCLC patient treatment. Determining resectable patients from a non-resectable patient is a surgeon-dependent thing. Only the surgeon can tell that a patient who is not clearly infiltrative with the disease is not a surgical candidate. There is also a discussion about what to do with pneumonectomy patients, about five to seven patients. Pneumonectomy is a challenging, dangerous after induction therapy and these patients are treated differently. They dont seem to be quite as bad and the morbidity and mortality issues in patients who get pre-operative chemotherapy, compared to chemotherapy and radiation.
At Dr. Doningtons institution, the therapy is tailor-fitted to what type of resection the patient needs because each person has personalized medicine just like personalized surgery and personalized chemotherapy.