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Lung Cancer
In the early part of the century, lung cancer was a man's disease. Today, it is women who are most affected. Find out why this deadly disease is on the rise in women and minorities, and what can be done to reverse this trend.
How prevalent is lung cancer in comparison to breast cancer and heart disease?
Lung cancer is America's number three killer. It is responsible for one in seven deaths or close to 335,000 each year.
Is the cause of lung cancer known?
Cigarette smoking causes most lung cancer. Tobacco smoke contains many harmful substances that damage cells. These harmful substances are known as carcinogens.
Do the changes of getting lung cancer increase if you are a heavy smoker?
The more a person smokes, the higher the risk of getting cancer - not just lung cancer, but also cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, larynx, bladder, kidney, cervix and pancreas.
If you have been smoking for many years, do your changes of getting lung cancer decrease if you quit?
Although quitting early is best, smokers should know that it is never too late to benefit from quitting- even if they have lung cancer. Lung cancer patients who stop smoking are less likely to get a second lung cancer than are patients who continue to smoke.
Is smoking the only risk factors for getting lung cancer?
Smoking is by far the major cause of lung cancer, but it is not the only cause. Exposure to other people's tobacco smoke, known as environmental tobacco smoke or second hand smoke, also increases the risk of lung cancer among nonsmokers. Scientists have found that non-smokers who live or work with smokers have a higher lung cancer risk than non-smokers who do not face this type of exposure to environmental or second hand tobacco smoke.
What are some of the other risk factors?
Exposure to certain carcinogens in the workplace, such as asbestos, also increases the risk of lung cancer. This risk is especially high for workers who also smoke. Workers who are exposed to high levels of radon, a radioactive gas, have an increased risk of developing lung cancer. High levels of radon are also found in some types of underground mines. Radon also can build up in homes, but the levels in homes are generally much lower than in mines.
Is there just one type of lung cancer?
Most lung cancers are carcinomas. A carcinoma is a cancer that begins in the lining or covering tissure of an organ. Lung cancers are generally divided into two types: nonsmall cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. The tumor cells of each type grow and spread differently and each type needs different treatment. Nonsmall cell lung cancer is more common than small cell lung cancer and is often called "oat cell cancer" because the cancer cells may look like oats when viewed under a microscope. This type of lung cancer grows rapidly and quickly spreads to other organs.
Does lung cancer produce symptoms like some of the other cancers?
Lung cancer usually does not cause symptoms when if first develops. Doctors sometimes discover lung cancer in a person with no symptoms after the individual has a chest x-ray for another medical reason. Usually lung cancer is found after the growing tumor causes symptoms to appear.
What are these symptoms?
A cough is the most common symptom of lung cancer. It is likely to occur when a tumor irritates the lining of the airways or blocks the passage of air. Some people have a "smoker's cough" that becomes worse. Other symptoms include constant chest pain and shortness of breath, wheezing, repeated bouts of pneumonia or bronchitis, coughing up blood, or hoarseness. A tumor than presses on large blood vessels near the lung can cause swelling of the neck and face. If the tumor presses on certain nerves near the lung, it can cause pain and weakness in the shoulder, arm or hand.
Additionally, there may symptoms that do not seem to be related to the lungs at all. Like all cancers, lung cancer can cause fatigue, loss of appetite and loss of weight. If the cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it may cause headaches, pain, or bone fractures.
How is lung cancer diagnosed?
If you present to your doctor with some of the symptoms of lung cancer, he/she will want to take a complete personal and family medical history background as well as smoking and work history. He/she will also want to do a physical exam including x-rays of the chest and possibly conduct a few other tests.
What other tests should I expect?
Your doctor may order a CT scan. A CT scan is a series of x-ray images put together by a computer. These detailed pictures can reveal that a tumor is in the lung, but they cannot show whether the tumor is benign or malignant.
The only way to know whether cancer is present is to obtain cells from the lungs so that a pathologist can examine them under a microscope. Sometimes cancer cells can be found in the thick fluid that the patient coughs up from deep in the airways (sputum). Most doctors usually want to do a biopsy to remove a sample of cells from the lung. To do a biopsy, your doctor uses one of the following procedures.
- Bronchoscopy - this exam allows your doctor to look into the breathing passages through a Bronchoscope.
- Needle aspiration - this procedure removes cells that are hard to reach with the bronchoscope.
- Thoracotomy - this is a major surgical procedure done under general anesthetic to gain a better diagnosis of a cancer.
If your doctor can feel swollen lymph nodes or an enlarged liver, these areas may be biopsied to help with the diagnosis. Your doctor may biopsy other sites of the body where cancer is suspected.
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