Facts and Information about Lung Cancer

Symptoms

When lung cancer is diagnosed a quarter of the people will have no symptoms. Symptoms are usually found when a doctor is examining an X-ray for another reason and three quarters of the remaining people who are diagnosed, only had a few symptoms. The primary tumour is affected so there are some symptoms as the cancer spreads to other organs in the body.

Some of the symptoms of lung cancer are as follows:

• Coughing up blood
• Phlegm is reddish in colour
• A feeling of tiredness
• Loss of weight
• Respiratory infections that keep occurring
• Shortness of breath
• Any new wheezing
• Hoarseness when speaking

Metastatic cancer

When people are diagnosed with lung cancer around 30-40 percent of them will have signs or symptoms of metastatic cancer. The symptoms depend upon where the cancer is located and the extent of it. Some of the symptoms are as follows:

• Brain, bones and liver start showing the spread of lung cancer
• Skin and eyes develop a yellowish tinge, this indicates metastatic lung cancer
• Pain is felt in the ribs, thigh bones, and vertebrae
• Seizures, problems seeing, and feeling one side of body weaker than the other means the cancer is in the brain

There are indirect effects when the cancer is spreading and this is known as paraneoplastic syndrome. The symptoms for this are as follows:

• Fingertips start forming new bones
• Blood calcium is showing high levels
• Blood clots
• Blood is showing low sodium levels

Diagnosis of lung cancer

To diagnose lung cancer correctly is rather hard – and the following test should be conducted:

• Biopsy of tumour tissue in lung
• Mucus is examined
• Positron Emission Tomography scan
• Bronchoscopy
• Mediastinoscopy
• CT scan of brain
• Bone scan
• Thoracentesis
• Medical history

Treatment

There are a number of ways for treating lung cancer depending on the growth and how much it has spread. The treatments are as follows:

• Surgery for lung cancer
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation
• Medication
• Non small cell
• Small cell by stage

Prevention of lung cancer

In order to lower risks of getting other cancers there are preventions that can be taken.

Risk factor is when something increases the chance of cancer. Protective factor means that chances of developing cancer are lowered since you are not doing things that could cause this disease.

Some known ways of preventing cancer are:

• Eating habits are changed
• Lifestyle is changed
• Medications being taken that will treat precancerous conditions or will keep cancer from initially starting
• Avoiding anything that is known for causing cancer