Lung Cancer Symptoms, Causes, Diagnoses and Treatment

What is Lung Cancer Disease?

Cancer that forms in the large bronchi at the entrance to the lungs is called Lung Cancer Disease.Deaths from this Respiratory Disease are increasing year by year.one of the most frequent localizations of cancer in both men and women over the age of 40 years.

Key points:

• Types of Lung Cancer Disease
• Lung Cancer symptoms
• Causes of Lung Cancer
• How to Prevent Lung Cancer Disease
• How Is Lung Cancer Diagnosed
• Different treatments for Lung Cancer

Types of Lung Cancer Disease:

There are various types of Lung Tumor, and the location, malignancy, and detection method are different.

There are two major types of Lung Cancer:

1.  Non-small cell Lung Tumor.
2.  Small cell Lung Tumor.

Small cell carcinoma * has a very high malignancy and is treated separately from non-small cell carcinoma. 

Non-small cell carcinoma includes squamous cell carcinoma *, adenocarcinoma *, and large cell carcinoma.

Squamous cell carcinoma and small cell carcinomatend to occur in the central part of the bronchi (central Lung Cancer , a large bronchi at the entrance to the lung), and most adenocarcinomas begin in the back of the lungs.

Squamous cell carcinoma is closely related to smoking, adenocarcinoma is more likely to occur in women, and small cell carcinoma is hard to cure.

Small and large cell carcinoma:Cancer with low degree of differentiation of cancer cells. Small cell carcinomas are generally small cells and large cell carcinomas are large. The prognosis is not good.
Squamous cell carcinoma:Squamous cell carcinoma is cancer that is made of tissue similar to squamous cell, which is the tissue of the skin that covers the body surface and organ surfaces. We are seen in cancer such as clubs (shikyukeibu). It accounts for about 30% of all Lung Cancers.
Adenocarcinoma:Adenocarcinoma is a type of cancer that secretes mucus and hormones and forms the ducts that make up the tract. I can do it. It is the most common type of Lung Cancer and accounts for about 50%.
Most of the Lung Tumoris squamous cell carcinoma and glandular cancer (80%).

Lung Cancer Symptoms:

Symptoms of Lung Cancer vary depending on the location of the disease and how far that has spread.Early Symptoms such as cough, sputum, and bloody sputum appear in start.

As the cancer progresses, symptoms such as dyspnea, fever, hoarseness (screaming), chest pain, and back pain are seen. Dyspnea occurs when the Lung Tumor grows and the bronchi are blocked. The fever is caused by cancer blocking the bronchi or accumulating pneumonia.

Hoarseness symptom is caused by cancer invading the recurrent laryngeal nerves of the vocal cords.

When Lung Cancer Disease develops above the lungs and invades the sympathetic and brachial nerves, the eyelids may fall, the eyes may shrink, abnormal sweating of the ipsilateral face may occur, and the hands may become numb or painful.

Cancer that begins in the back of the lungs is called peripheral Lung Cancer . Early peripheral Lung Tumor often has no subjective symptoms. As it progresses, chest pain and back pain appear in addition to the central symptoms, which are due to the invasion of the chest wall by the cancer.

Causes of Lung Cancer Disease:

The very first and, unfortunately, common cause of Lung Cancer is smoking . In 8 out of 10 cases, the development of this disease is caused by smoking. The longer a person smokes and the more packs of cigarettes a day, the greater the risk.

When two or more packs are smoked per day, the frequency of Lung Tumor increases 15 to 25 times. A pipe or cigar causes the same risk of illness as regular cigarettes.

This is due to the fact that hydrogen peroxide, which is contained in tobacco smoke, acts on the cell receptor sending it a false signal for renewal. As a result, their uncontrolled division begins, which passes into cancer.

Lung Cancer can also be caused by secondhand smoke. People who do not smoke but inhale cigarette smoke are at risk of developing the disease.

Industrial and transport smoke can also cause cancer.

Radiation is a trigger factor for cancer cells.

Long-term workers with arsenic, asbestos dust, chromium and nickel are often diagnosed with Lung Cancer Disease. 

The onset of the disease is facilitated by chronic inflammatory processes in the bronchi or lung tissue, as well as transferred lung diseases that caused changes in the lungs: the formation of adhesions, scars, and seals.

Heredity is a controversial factor, but evidence of a slight increase in the risk of disease in close relatives of a cancer patient exists.

How to Prevent Lung Cancer Disease?

Prevention measures are simple, but very effective.

• Do not start smoking, and if you started, quit as soon as possible . Quitting smoking is the most effective way to reduce the risk of Lung Cancer. It is believed that 10 years without smoking return the risk of former smokers to a minimum mark.
• Carry out regular ventilation of the room, regular wet cleaning, to paste wallpaper (or paint) on the walls and reinforced concrete floors to rid the premises of radon - the gas that takes second place after smoking as a cause of Lung Tumor.
• Contact with asbestos dust, heavy metals (especially in production) should be avoided;
• Need to eat right. Adequate intake of natural antioxidants (provitamin A, vitamin C and E) found in herbs, fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of Lung Cancer.

How Is Lung Cancer Diagnosed?

The following studies are performed to establish a diagnosis of Lung Cancer Disease:

• repeated sputum cytology
• X-ray of the lungs
• computed tomography (CT) scan of the lungs
• bronchoscopy with tumor biopsy
• transthoracic tumor biopsy.

In addition, differential diagnosis is also carried out, with the help of which it is necessary to exclude tuberculosis, chronic pneumonia , pulmonary adenoma.

In Lung Cancer, the priority is to assess the degree of spread of the disease, which is carried out using:

• skeleton scintigraphy
• bone marrow biopsy
• ultrasound examination of the liver
• computed tomography of the brain.

Different treatments for Lung Cancer:

Surgical removal if found earlier:

Surgical treatment is still the first choice in treating Lung Cancer . Surgery depends on the size of the cancer, whether it has spread to the lymph nodes, the extent of invasion of adjacent organs, and the degree of lung function of the person.

Radical surgery can be performed only in 10-20% of patients when Lung Tumor is diagnosed in the early stages. 

Chemotherapy :

If the cancer has spread extensively or has spread to other organs, local radiation therapy and systemic chemotherapy and immunotherapy with anticancer drugs are used. 

Recently, new anticancer drugs have been developed, and drugs that reduce side effects have also been developed, and the therapeutic effects of anticancer drugs have improved. Molecular targeted therapies have also been developed and are becoming a major treatment for patients who have failed with conventional chemotherapy. 

Chemotherapy for inoperable Lung Cancer and metastases is effective in 20-30% of patients.

Chemotherapy courses are carried out at intervals of 3-4 weeks for 1 to 1.5 years. Already at the beginning of treatment or after 3-4 courses of chemotherapy, radiation therapy can be additionally used.

Laser therapy treatment:

Another treatment is laser therapy. There are two types of laser therapy for Lung Cancer . One is to burn the bronchi by clogging the carcinoma that has developed in the large bronchi, and the other is to destroy the cancer cells by the photochemical reaction of the laser irradiation. Early cancer may be cured by laser treatment alone.

For advanced cancer, hyperthermia may also be tried. Recently, gene therapy has also been used. It is still in a trial stage for treating advanced cancer, but it is a promising treatment in combination with other treatments. Recently, chemotherapy after Lung Tumor resection has proven effective.