Lung cancer is the second most common malignancy affecting both sexes. Roughly 170,000 Americans are diagnosed with this illness ever year. It is considered the most rapidly increasing cause of death from cancer. Since 1987, lung cancer has been the leading cause of cancer death in women, surpassing breast cancer. And while lung cancer incidence has leveled off among men, it continues to rise steadily among women. The average age of patients with lung cancer is 60 years. It is more common in African-Americans and Hawaiians.
CAUSES OF LUNG CANCER
Cigarette smoking is the number one cause of this disease. Even passive inhalation of the smoke increases the chance of developing this illness. Radon exposure is another cause of lung cancer, killing 14,000 Americans every year. Asbestos exposure also increases Lung cancer risk. The risk becomes astronomical in exposed individuals who also smoke.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
Patients do not manifest any signs in the very early stages. Cough, shortness of breath, chest pain or blood in the sputum are among the early warning signs. Other signs of this illness could be a change of voice, hoarseness, weakness, fatigue, and weight loss.
Small cell cancers have two stages,
• Limited stage, when the cancer is confined to a defined area in the chest
• Extensive stage, when the cancer may have spread to a wider area in the chest or to areas outside the chest
TREATMENT
Treatment decisions in lung cancer depend on whether SCLC or NSCLC is present. Treatment also depends on tumor stage, particularly in NSCLC. A person's general physical condition (the ability to withstand treatment procedures) is also taken into account.
The most widely used therapies for lung cancer are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.
PREVENTION
Lung cancer remains a highly preventable disease because 90% of lung cancers occur in smokers or former smokers. The best way to prevent lung cancer is to not smoke.
• Cigarette smoking is highly addictive, and quitting often proves to be difficult. However, smoking rates have recently decreased in North America and in other parts of the world.
• Health-care workers play an important role in identifying smokers and helping them quit.
• Many products such as nicotine gum, nicotine sprays, nicotine inhalers, and other types of medications have been successfully used to help people trying to quit smoking.
• Minimizing exposure to passive smoking is also an effective preventive measure.
• Using a home radon test kit can identify and allow correction of increased radon levels in the home, which can also cause lung cancers.
• Smokers who use a combination of supplemental nicotine, group therapy, and behavioral training show a significant drop in smoking rates.
Screening for lung cancer consists of the following:
• Currently, the American Cancer Society does not recommend routine chest x-ray screening for lung cancer. What this means is that many health-insurance plans do not cover screening chest x-rays or CT scans.
• Periodic chest x-rays may be appropriate for current or former smokers. Discuss the pros and cons of this approach with a health-care provider.
• Low-dose CT scans have shown great potential in detecting early stage lung cancer and therefore surgical cure. This procedure requires a special type of CT scanner (spiral CT) and has been shown to be an effective tool for the identification of small lung cancers in smokers and former smokers. However, it has not yet been proven whether the use of this technique actually saves lives or lowers the risk of death from lung cancer. Trials are underway to further determine the utility of spiral CT scans in screening for lung cancer.
