In Spain, approximately one year is diagnosed 30,000 cases of lung cancer. It is one one of the most frequent in our country only behind breast cancer. In addition, due to its high mortality, its prevalence at 5 years is relatively low.
For all this, it is important to know what are the risk factors and the causes that can motivate this type of cancersuch as smoking, as well as identify its symptoms and treatment.
How to identify its symptoms?
Lung cancer originates from the exaggerated and uncontrolled proliferation of certain lung cells, which gives rise to local problems due to the occupation of space and the understanding of other structures near the area. In addition, the cancer can spread through lymph nodes and/or blood vessels to other organs: This is what we know as distant metastasis..
According to the Clínica Universidad de Navarra, there are two types of tumors: non-small cell carcinoma (85 percent of cases) and small cell carcinoma or small cell carcinoma of the lung (15 percent of all cases).
Be that as it may, in both cases Early detection is essential, since when it has not yet affected other areas or there are no metastases, healing is possible in up to 90% of cases. For this, there are periodic tests such as a CAT scan that can be done by everyone who belongs to the population at risk.
As for its symptoms, the problem is that in almost two thirds of cases there are no symptoms or they are very non-specific: tiredness, loss of appetite, weight loss, etc. Symptoms that we can easily confuse with other diseases or reasons, which means that lung cancer is detected at a late stage.
A symptom that usually appears with lung cancer is persistent cough, which is due to local tumor growth and occurs in 45-75% of patients. Another common symptom is hemoptysis or blood in the sputum, which usually occurs in 50% of cases. In addition, it is also common dyspnea or feeling short of breathproduced by the lack of lung space.
How to avoid it?
If we want to avoid it, it is important to know that smoking is the main cause of this disease, associated with more than 80% of cases. Thus, the chances that a smoker has of suffering from lung cancer in his life are 30% while those of a person who does not smoke barely reach 1%. Within these parameters, of course, the more cigarettes we smoke per day or the longer we have been smoking, the more likely we are to suffer from it.
If we stop smoking, the risk of developing lung cancer will gradually decrease, although the risk rates will remain high. Keep in mind that passive smoking can also cause this diseaseas well as exposure to high levels of asbestos, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic and nickel.
What’s more, This whole process is also influenced by genetics.. Thus, people with certain inherited changes in the DNA of a particular chromosome (chromosome 6) have a higher chance of developing lung cancer, even if they smoke little or not at all.
What is your treatment?
The treatment of lung cancer will depend on each specific case: In some cases, surgical intervention may be necessary, as well as chemotherapy, radiotherapy or immunotherapy.. If the cancer is localized, it will usually be possible to intervene surgically and thus remove the tumor.
Some types of surgery are lobectomy (removal of a lobe of the lung), pneumonectomy (removal of the entire lung), and segmentectomy or wedge resection (removal of part of a lobe). In addition, combined treatments can also be performed. For example, it is very common to combine a surgical intervention with subsequent chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
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