LUNG CANCER

ANDREA TORRECILLA ALMAIDA

1st MEDICINE – SUBGROUP 2D
1. Introduction: What is lung cancer and its symptoms and signs?

Lung cancer or lung carcinoma, is a disease characterized by the appearance of a

malignant tumour, because of an uncontrolled cell growth in the lung tissues. This cell
growth can become worse and spread to other parts of the body, causing metastasis.

This pathology is usually asymptomatic in the early stages, which can be really
dangerous, because if it is diagnosed at an advanced stage, the survival rate is often low.

However, there are some signs and symptoms characteristic of lung cancer:

- Persistent or bloody cough and hoarseness.

- Abnormal shortness of breath or wheezing.
- Weight changes, especially significant weight losses.
- Persistent pain in the chest, shoulders, back and bones.

2. Diagnosis.

Diagnosing this type of cancer includes many tests and procedures. The most effective
ways of determining whether there is a malignant tumour or not is taking tissue samples
and analysing them in the laboratory, as well as computed tomographies (TC) or X-ray
scans and blood tests.

3. Types and stages.

3.1. Types:

There are two main types of lung cancer, depending on which part of the lungs the
tumour appears. On the one hand, non-small cell lung cancer is the most common type (it
represents an 85% of all lung cancers) and includes those tumours which appear in the
outer and central regions of the lungs. On the other hand, small cell lung cancer is less
common (it only represents a 15% of all lung cancers) but much more aggressive, because
of its quick growth and huge likelihood of metastasizing. In this type, the tumour is
located in the inner parts of the lung or near the bronchi.

3.2. Stages:

Furthermore, lung cancer can be divided into several stages, depending on how
advanced the illness is:

2
- In Stage I, the tumour has just formed, so it is small, between 2 and 5 centimetres.
Furthermore, lymph nodes are not involved and there is no metastasis.
- In Stage II, the tumour is still small, but it can grow up to 7 cm, and cancer may have
spread to some lymph nodes, but there is no metastasis.
- In Stage III, the tumour can be small or large, but the important trait is the presence
of cancer in lymph nodes on the chest, the collarbone and the neck. There is no
metastasis yet.
- In Stage IV, the tumour is normally large, many lymph nodes have cancer and
metastases can be found in many other body organs.

The survival rate varies depending on the stage of cancer a patient is on. Obviously,
the earlier a tumour is found and treated, the most likely is the patient to survive and fully
recover.

4. Causes.

Lung cancer can be caused by several different factors. Smoking is the main cause of
this type of cancer, responsible for over a 70% of cases, and it also causes other types of
cancer, such as mouth and oesophageal cancers. Tobacco and cannabis are made up of
chemicals that can be impressively toxic for human health, and their smoke is
carcinogenic too, so passive smokers can develop lung cancer as well, even though it is
less risky.

In addition to smoking, the exposure to some chemicals used in many industries are
proven to increase the risk of developing lung cancer. These substances include arsenic,
asbestos, coal and diesel fumes, which are easily found in the air because of pollution;
and radon gas, found inside some houses, schools and workplaces.

Furthermore, researchers have found out that people with relatives that have suffered
from lung cancer are more likely to develop the disease themselves, so genetics also play
a role in the appearance of this type of tumour.

5. Treatment.

After someone is diagnosed with lung cancer, the treatment depends on the stage the
patient is on. Normally, if it is discovered early, surgery is used to remove the tumour.
There are three types of surgery to treat lung cancer:

- Lobectomy, by which one or more lobes are removed.

3
- Pneumonectomy, in which an entire lung is removed, only if the other one is healthy.
- Wedge resection or segmentectomy, where doctors remove only a small piece of the
lung, because they consider the tumour is small and limited enough.

However, as I said before, lung cancer is often asymptomatic in its early stages, so it
is often diagnosed when it is more advanced. In this case, surgery is sometimes used, but
it is not enough, so other techniques need to be used, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy
and immunotherapy. These can be risky procedures, but they are worth it, as they often
succeed in destroying the tumour or, at least, reducing the patient’s suffering.

6. Prevention.

Obviously, as smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, not smoking is the best way
to prevent it. For smokers, there is a great range of nicotine replacement products to give
up smoking, such as adhesive patches, nose sprays and even chewing gums. In addition
to this, psychological therapy might also help someone to stop smoking, especially if they
are really addicted to it.

Apart from smoking, having unhealthy habits may cause a person to be more likely to
develop lung cancer, so it is quite important to have a balanced diet, a healthy lifestyle
and to do some physical activity.

It is important to make people, especially smokers, aware of the huge risk of lung
cancer, which does not have a really high rate of survival and is the second most common
type of cancer, only after breast cancer. The probability of surviving more than 5 years
after having lung cancer in the USA is less than 20%.

7. Conclusion.

As a conclusion, I personally believe that lung cancer could be a less common disease
if people were more aware of its causes and effects. As it is stated before, lung cancer is
the second most common type of cancer, and its main cause is smoking.

4
 Therefore, I reckon that, if governments promoted campaigns to raise awareness of the
dangers of smoking and the importance of a healthy lifestyle, lung cancer cases would
decrease drastically and so would the number of deaths because of it.

8. Bibliography.

Cancer Stat Facts. [Internet]. SEER. [cited 2 October 2019]. Available from:
https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/lungb.html

Downward E. Stages of Lung Cancer. [Internet]. LungCancer.net. [reviewed January

2017; cited 1 October 2019]. Available from: https://lungcancer.net/basics/stages/

Downward E. Types of Lung Cancer. [Internet]. LungCancer.net. [reviewed January

2017; cited 1 October 2019]. Available from: https://lungcancer.net/types/

G. Buccheri, D. Ferrigno. European Respiratory Journal [Internet]. 2004 [cited 2

October 2019]; 24(6). Available from:
http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/24/6/898.article-info

Lung cancer. [Internet]. En.wikipedia.org. [cited 1 October 2019]. Available from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_cancer

Lung cancer – Causes. [Internet]. nhs.uk. [reviewed 15 August 2019; cited 2 October
2019]. Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lung-cancer/causes/

Lung cancer – Treatment. [Internet]. nhs.uk. [reviewed 15 August 2019; cited 2

October 2019]. Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lung-cancer/treatment/