All over the world, cancer is one of the deadliest diseases. There are different types of cancer, lung cancer being one in the list. Lung cancer begins in the lungs and affects the cells of the windpipe and the lung cells as well (Gazdar et al. 725). The disease occurs when the normal cells of the lungs become cancerous. It happens after the lung cells undergo mitosis resulting in growth of the cells uncontrollably thus creating a tumor or a lump in the lung(s) which is harmful.
Cancer of the lungs is of two types;
Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC)
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Rizvi et al. 2015 p 257-265).
The people who smoke heavily are the ones who are majorly affected by (SCLC), and it's less common as compared to the (NSC) cancer. The (NSCLC) is of several types which include, large cell carcinoma, the squamous cell carcinoma, and adenocarcinoma cancer of the lungs. (NSCLC) affects the majority of the victims.
Signs and Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of cancer of the lungs show up when the disease has advanced. They include.
Coughing up blood
Chronic persistent coughing
Loss of weight, fatigue, and lack of appetite
Shortness of breath
Pain in the chest that worsens when coughing, laughing or breathing profoundly and in the abdomen
Hoarse voice.
Wheezing
A headache
Bone pain.
Causes of Lung Cancer
Smoking
Cancer of the lungs can affect anyone although the causes are not fully understood. Statistics show that 90% of the lungs disease cases are caused by smoking of cigars, pipes, and cigarettes which are products of tobacco (Siegel et al. 7-30). Such products contain a lot of harmful substances. Both active and passive smokers are susceptible to the disease although according to center for disease control (CDC) and prevention body, the active smokers are 20 to 30 times more vulnerable to the disease. When smoking, one inhales smoke into the respiratory system. The inhaled smoke affects the lungs and damages the tissues. When the cells are damaged, they start behaving abnormally. The lungs repair the cells but the more one smokes, the higher the number of damaged tissues and hence it becomes difficult for the lung(s) to repair the damaged tissues. It, therefore, means that the longer someone smokes and the higher the rate of smoking characterize higher chances of developing cancer since a higher number of lung tissues are affected by the smoke. For the heavy smokers, they are at very high risk of developing the small cell lung cancer. Once someone stops smoking, the chances of developing lung cancer lowed over time.
As mentioned above, passive smoking is another causative agent of cancer of the lungs. Passive smoking means breathing in tobacco smoke release by other people to the air when one is around smoker(s) (Gazdar and Adi 437). Basing on the CDC statistics, 20-30 % of the people who have never smoked but exposed to passive smoking frequently are at a higher risk of developing cancer of the lungs compared to those who have never inhaled tobacco smoke in any way. Those who have never smoked and never exposed to second-hand smoking, their probability of developing lung cancer is 0.5%. There are other several causes of lung cancer apart from smoking which includes;
Exposure to Asbestos
Asbestos are minerals containing magnesium silicate used in making different items especially, building materials and electrical insulators among others (Wolff et al. 5-15). The people working in such industries inhale the gases which contain such chemicals, they are at risk of suffering from lung cancer. The gases are carcinogenic, and that’s why they have such effects when inhaled. Most of those chemicals were banned, but the compounds still exist in older buildings and other materials which were made using such carcinogenic substances. Once a person exposes to asbestos, it can take a long period between 25 to 65 years before developing cancer a period referred to as the latency period.
Exposure to Radon
Exposure to radon gas is another cause of lung cancer (Wolff et al. 5-15). The gas is produced naturally by the breakdown of uranium contained in rocks, soil, and water hence finally becomes one of the components of the air we breathe. When such gas gets into the body, it increases the chances of developing lung cancer. The higher the percentage of random gases breathed into the body system, the higher the risk of developing lung cancer.
Exposure to Other Elements
When people come into contact with coal gas, the gases released when processing steel, nickel, and chrome they increase their probability of developing lung cancer. Exposure to air pollutants such as diesel particulate matter and other air pollutants raises the risk of lung cancer. There are other insecticides which are also carcinogenic and once inhaled they increase the chances of developing lung cancer especially the chemicals used in flower plantation for spraying the flowers.
Genetic Causes
Lung cancer can also be genetic. Having a member of the family either a parent, child or sibling diagnosed with lung cancer also increases the probability of other members of the same family to develop lung cancer (Siegel et al. 7-30).
Personal History
An individual previously diagnosed with other diseases such as chronic bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, emphysema or lung fibrosis is at a higher risk of being infected.
Older Age
The older someone grows, the higher the risk of developing complicated diseases (Siegel et al. 7-30). Old age comes with the general weakness of the body which also weakens the body immune system. Lung cancer is one of the diseases which can occur as a result of old age.
Effects of Lung Cancer
Lung cancer comes with a lot of health complications. Some of the significant effects include;
Shortness of Breath
People with lung cancer can experience breathing difficulties especially when cancer overgrows hence leading to blockage of the airway (Kim et al. 95-105). The damaged tissues of the lungs may also release some fluids. Such fluids accumulate in the lungs blocking the functioning of the lungs especially in the absorption of the oxygen into the blood system hence reducing the amount of oxygen in the blood. The fluid also prevents the free expansion and contraction of the affected lung(s) which also results into shortening of the breath.
Coughing Up Blood
Lung cancer causes bleeding at times when one is coughing. Blood is forced to come out through the affected tissues into the windpipe. When someone coughs, the blood is pushed out from the wind wipe through the mouth (Walter et al. 2015). During exhaling, the victim can also notice blood smelling which is also an indication of infection of the lungs. Although treatments are available which can help reduce the bleeding, continuous bleeding of the lungs can cause failure of other body parts to function effectively because of lack of enough oxygen which might end up causing death.
Pain
cancer is one of the most painful sicknesses (Kim et al. 95-105). Lung cancer can spread to other parts of the respiratory system and other parts of the body including bones, brain, and chest. When cancer spreads to those parts, it causes the victim to experience a lot of pain, headache, nausea among other signs depending on the affected organ.
Conclusion
Once cancer advances it becomes incurable. The only treatment done is for reducing the pain and helping someone to live longer. According to WHO statistics, more than one million and six hundred deaths in the year 2015 were caused by lung cancer worldwide. Predictably, by the year 2030, the number of deaths caused by lung cancer will have raised to 2.2 million deaths in a year. Precautions should be taken to reduce the number of people who can be affected by such illness. Precaution is through eliminating or minimizing cigarette smoking, radon exposure and reducing the release of carcinogenic gases into the atmosphere.
Work Cited
Gazdar, Adi F. "Preface: lung cancer in never smokers." Translational lung cancer research 7.4 (2018): 437.
Gazdar, Adi F., Paul A. Bunn, and John D. Minna. "Small-cell lung cancer: what we know, what we need to know and the path forward." Nature Reviews Cancer 17.12 (2017): 725.
Kim, Youngmee, et al. "Effects of gender and depressive symptoms on quality of life among colorectal and lung cancer patients and their family caregivers." Psycho‐Oncology 24.1 (2015): 95-105.
Rizvi, Naiyer A., et al. "Activity and safety of nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, for patients with advanced, refractory squamous non-small-cell lung cancer (CheckMate 063): a phase 2, single-arm trial." The Lancet Oncology 16.3 (2015): 257 265.
Siegel, Rebecca L., Kimberly D. Miller, and Ahmedin Jemal. "Cancer statistics, 2017." CA: a cancer journal for clinicians67.1 (2017): 7-30.
Walter, Fiona Mary, et al. "Symptoms and other factors associated with time to diagnosis and stage of lung cancer: a prospective cohort study." British journal of cancer 112.s1 (2015): S6.
Wolff, Henrik, et al. "Asbestos, asbestosis, and cancer, the Helsinki criteria for diagnosis and attribution 2014: recommendations." Scandinavian journal of work, environment " health (2015): 5-15.
