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Lung cancer is one of the most dangerous and fatal cancers in our country. This is a not uncommon disease, appearing more in adulthood and in people with smoking habits.
Recognizing early signs of lung cancer is an active way to limit the risks that the disease causes, helping doctors to have an effective treatment regimen, improving the rate of recovery to avoid causing dangerous complications. danger, even death.
What Is Lung Cancer?
Lung cancer is also known as bronchial cancer. This is malignant cancer that is difficult to treat, with a low success rate. When the patient has a disease in the lung, a malignant tumor will appear growing from the bronchial epidermis, alveolar glands …
If not treated in time, the tumor will grow quickly. It then spreads beyond the lungs, to the tissues. If this condition persists, not only the lungs but also other organs will begin to have malignancies. This process is known as metastasis.
Lung cancer is currently divided into 2 categories:
• Small cell lung cancer, rate of about 15 – 20%.
• Lung cancer without cells accounts for 80 – 85%.
What Is The Danger Of Lung Cancer?
In Vietnam, lung cancer is ranked 2nd in the 10 most common cancers. Not only that, this is cancer that is difficult to detect at an early stage, with very vague symptoms or no symptoms, making it difficult to treat. This leads to the disease being detected and treated only in a late-stage, with low treatment results, and a very high rate of fatal complications.
According to statistics, the rate of lung cancer in Vietnam tends to increase. In 2010 there were 126,000 people with lung cancer, it is predicted that the number of people with lung cancer by 2020 will reach 190,000 people.
Thus each year there are about 20,000 cases of lung cancer and up to 17,000 deaths. The rate of people with lung cancer who live more than 5 years is very low. Small cell lung cancer only stops at 6%. For non-small cells, lung cancer is 18%.
With these data, it is indeed an alarming situation that people need to consciously improve their own health to reduce the risk of disease.
Causes of Lung Cancer
The cause of lung cancer is not really clear, but through the cases, doctors have found the factors that make people more susceptible to lung cancer are as follows:
Smoke
Cigarette smoking is the most common cause of lung cancer. According to statistics up to 90% of people suffering from lung cancer are caused by smoking habits. In cigarette smoke there are many harmful substances, when inhaled directly by humans, it will damage the lungs, increasing the risk of lung cancer by 13 times compared to ordinary people.
Not only active smokers but also passive smokers (inhaling secondhand smoke) for a prolonged period of time are also at risk of lung cancer.
Air pollution
When the air source is polluted, it can come from household gas, burning waste containing toxic substances from plastic and rancid food, factory factories emitting gas, and even gas from the engines emitted by those who work as car repairmen, or frequent traffic without protective gear, is also one of the causes of lung cancer.
Job
Occupation is also a factor influencing people at risk of lung cancer. Especially those who work in the nickel mines, radioactive mines, petrochemical industry, gas, factories … And even teachers who regularly use chalk to write boards are also susceptible to disease.
Lung diseases
People who have lung-related diseases such as old scars that have been healed due to lung damage, old tuberculosis … There is also a risk of malignant tumors that will develop on the scar causing lung cancer.
Exposure to radiation
Radiation is very toxic to human health. Is the cause of various cancers including lung cancer.
When working in an unsecured environment such as uranium mines and fluorspar, patients can inhale radon gas in the air and be exposed to radiation directly leading to a high risk of disease.
Lung Cancer Symptoms
Depending on the location of the tumor in the lung, patients may have different symptoms. But when the disease is in the early stage, the symptoms are quite vague, not causing too much pain, so it is difficult to detect. Until the lung is severely damaged and the tumor thrives, the symptoms will become apparent. These are also difficult times for treatment.
Some of the signs of lung cancer that you can recognize are as follows:
Cough a lot
One of the leading symptoms of lung cancer is a cough. When patients with lung cancer up to 70% of cases have this symptom. Coughing attacks are usually long-lasting. More severe is coughing up blood, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, recurring pneumonia.
Pain in the shoulder, hands, and fingers
When the tumors are located at the top of the lung, causing an invasion of the chest wall, compression of the arm neural network. From there, leading to symptoms such as pain in the shoulder, arm, and skin paresthesia. This condition is also known as Pancoast syndrome.
When the sympathetic nervous system is invaded by the tumor, it also causes damage to the vision such as the concave eye, the eyelids, the pupil shrink, the damaged face will not excrete sweat.
Weight loss is difficult to control
In lung cancer patients also appear another symptom that is uncontrolled weight loss. In case you do not diet to lose weight but the weight loss is still happening abnormally, for unknown reasons is a concern. This weight loss can be caused by diseases in the body.
Not only lung cancer, when there is a tumor, but it will also cause fatigue, loss of appetite, sudden weight loss … Now, you need to go to the hospital to be diagnosed and examined. test to find out the exact cause of the above symptom.
Easy to get infected
Respiratory tract infection is a possible condition caused by lung cancer. This leads to common diseases such as chronic infections, bronchitis, and respiratory diseases.
If the patient has a chronic, persistent lung infection, he or she needs to go to a hospital for an x-ray to be diagnosed with whether or not he is at risk for lung cancer.
When tumors begin to invade or lymph nodes in the mediastinum have metastasized, they can cause hoarseness, worse muting than vocal cord paralysis.
Breast tissue abnormalities
Cancer cells are also capable of provoking hormonal disruption that leads to abnormal swelling in the tissues in the chest. This condition appears higher in men than in women.
Some other signs of cancer
Some other rare signs of lung cancer are necrotic necrosis, osteoarthritis, finger drumstick, coagulation syndrome …
Is Lung Cancer Contagious?
Lung cancer is not contagious? Lung cancer comes from many different causes mainly toxic environment and smoke. However, lung cancer has the same properties as other cancers, completely does not spread from person to person. Therefore, family members and other close contacts of lung cancer patients can be completely assured.
How Is Lung Cancer Treated?
Initially, doctors will diagnose lung cancer through the symptoms and information the patient provides to do tests to check the condition such as:
• Chest X-ray.
• Chest computerized tomography helps doctors determine the location and extent of tumor growth.
• Have a biopsy in unusual areas of the lung to test for cancer cells.
After the diagnosis results, doctors will have a separate treatment regimen for lung cancer depending on the stage of cancer development on the patient’s body, including many different methods such as:
• Surgery to remove the tumor.
• Radiation therapy to treat lung cancer.
• Chemotherapy often gives positive results at an early stage.
• Supportive treatment: Usually applied to patients in the late stage, helping the patient to reduce the pain sensation caused by the disease.
• Autoimmune therapy.
Lung Cancer Prevention
To prevent lung cancer, we should change some bad habits to improve quality of life and reduce the risk of diseases such as:
• Quitting smoking: Tobacco is the leading cause of lung cancer, quitting smoking is an effective way to prevent cancer and protect family members from passive smoking.
• Regular exercise helps strengthen the health, is good for the immune system and the body to prevent the risk of disease.
• Having a nutritious and reasonable diet, should increase the addition of green vegetables to the daily menu.
increase the immune system to prevent lung cancer
• Avoid contact with radioactive substances and heavy metals. In cases where it is imperative to work in an environment containing radioactive substances, safety measures should be applied.
Lung cancer is a great danger to human health, making it difficult to treat disease with a high mortality rate. Therefore, proactively protecting your own health by having a scientific lifestyle is essential.
In addition, it is necessary to have periodic health check-ups, recognize the early signs of lung cancer for treatment at an early stage, which is a way to avoid the dangerous complications that this disease causes.
The site cannot and does not contain medical advice. The medical information is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals.