Lung cancer is a condition in which cells grow uncontrollably in the lungs. The causes of lung cancer are often associated with smoking, but actually they are not always related. Then, what are the symptoms and treatment of lung cancer?
Signs and Symptoms of Lung Cancer
Symptoms of early-stage lung cancer show symptoms of coughing, shortness of breath, and bleeding mucus. Based on these symptoms, often the sufferer gets a misdiagnosis as tuberculosis or lung spots disease. General treatment of lung cancer usually includes surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of death for men and more than 70 percent of new lung cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage. In the early stages, there are no clear signs or symptoms of lung cancer.
Furthermore, symptoms of lung cancer can be characterized by:
- Coughing continuously until you have coughing up blood
- Always feeling out of breath
- Fatigue for no reason, and
- Drastic weight loss
Causes of lung cancer
Smoking can be said to be the main cause of lung cancer. People who are most at risk of developing lung cancer are active smokers. About 85 percent of lung cancers are associated with smoking habits.
Even though this is the case, it does not mean that every smoker will get lung cancer. People who do not smoke or passive smoking also have the possibility of developing lung cancer even though the number is lower.
The increased risk of lung cancer is associated with:
- Long duration of smoking
- The number of cigarettes consumed every day is very large
Quitting smoking decreases the risk of getting cancer, even the risk will continue to fall as long as you don't smoke. Just reducing a number of cigarettes can reduce risk (but the risk will be greatly reduced if you stop completely).
If you live with smokers, you have a higher risk of lung cancer compared to people who live in a non-smoking environment. This is because you become passive smoker.
Exposure to several other substances that can increase the risk of lung cancer, including:
- Smoking one cigarette cannabis can affect the lungs equivalent to smoking an ordinary cigarette pack.
- Chemicals such as arsenic and asbestos.
- Radiation exposure at work, such as radioactive dust.
- Radon gas, an inert chemical gas which is a natural decay product of uranium.
Some gene changes (mutations) can increase the risk of lung cancer. This gene change mostly occurs because a person is getting older. In addition, the presence of certain diseases of the lungs, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is also associated with a slight increase in risk (4-6 times the risk of smokers) for developing lung cancer.
Diagnosis of Lung Cancer
Doctors may suspect lung cancer if a routine physical examination reveals:
- Swollen lymph glands above the groin.
- Weak breathing.
- Abnormal sounds in the lungs (when examined with a stethoscope).
- Uneven pupils.
- fall eyelid.
- Weakness in one arm.
- Veins spread on the arms, chest or neck.
- Facial swelling.
Some lung cancers produce certain levels of certain hormones or substances such as abnormal levels of calcium. If someone shows evidence and there are no other obvious causes, the doctor must consider the presence of lung cancer.
Lung cancer can also spread to other parts of the body, such as bones, liver, adrenal glands, or brain. After lung cancer begins to cause symptoms, usually abnormal lung images can be seen on X-rays.
Occasionally, lung cancer that has not begun to cause symptoms can be seen on chest X-ray images when taken for other purposes, for example for medical tests only. Chest CT Scan can be recommended to get more detailed results.
Although laboratory tests of mucus or lung fluid can fully reveal, the diagnosis of lung cancer usually needs to be confirmed through a lung biopsy. This test is carried out under mild anesthesia, where the doctor guides a thin, radiant tube through the nose and descends into the airway to the location of the tumor, where small tissue samples can be taken. This is useful for tumors located near the center of the lungs.
If the biopsy confirms lung cancer, other tests will determine the type of cancer and how far it has spread. Nearby lymph nodes can be tested for cancer cells by a procedure called mediastinoscopy, while imaging techniques such as CT scans, PET scans, bone scans, MRI or CT scans of the brain can detect whether cancer is lodged elsewhere.