Lung cancer, usually, is a disease that arises when some bronchial mucous membrane epithelial cells appear to proliferate without restriction under the influence of various lung cancer-causing factors in the organism. The cancer tissue forms tumor masses, causing obstruction of bronchial lumen and bleeding caused by tumor rupture. Lung cancer cells can spread to distant organs such as brain, bone and liver through blood vessels and lymphatic vessels, causing dysfunction of these organs.
Lung cancer is one of the malignant tumors with the fastest growing incidence and mortality rate and the greatest threat to the health and lives of people. In the past 50 years, many countries have reported a significant increase in the incidence and mortality of lung cancer, with men accounting for the first place in incidence and mortality of all malignant tumors, and women accounting for the second place in incidence and mortality. Especially in the past 30 years, the number of lung cancer incidence has increased nearly five times, and currently, about 600,000 people die from lung cancer in China every year. The World Health Organization predicts that, according to epidemiologists, by 2025, there will be more than 1 million lung cancer patients in China each year. Lung cancer has become a major killer that seriously threatens human health.
In order to keep away from lung cancer, we need to know the causes of lung cancer first.
1. Smoking includes active and passive smoking.
Smoking has been recognized as one of the most important risk factors for lung cancer. Paper cigarette contains many carcinogenic substances such as benzo(a)pyrene and nitrosamines, and long-term smoking can lead to carcinogenesis of bronchial mucous membrane epithelial cells. Studies have shown that the relationship between smoking and the risk of lung cancer is related to the age of starting to smoke, the number of years of smoking, the amount of smoking and the type of tobacco, the earlier the age of starting to smoke, the longer the number of years and the greater the amount of smoking, the higher the possibility of lung cancer. The incidence of lung cancer in smokers is 10 to 13 times higher than that in nonsmokers, and more than 3/4 of lung cancer patients have a history of heavy smoking (20 or more cigarettes per day for 20 years or more). The risk of lung cancer is higher in those who smoke without a filter or with more tar than in those with a filter or low tar.
Passive smoking, commonly referred to as “secondhand smoke”. Environmental tobacco smoke consists mainly of sidestream smoke and mainstream smoke, with sidestream smoke containing higher levels of carcinogenic compounds such as benzene, formaldehyde, hydrazine, N-nitrosamines, aniline, etc. than mainstream smoke. Studies have shown that if secondhand smokers inhale 15 minutes of secondhand smoke daily, they have the same chance of developing lung cancer as smokers. Researchers found that 20% of female lung cancer patients never smoked, and they developed lung cancer mainly because of passive smoking, and wives can increase the risk of lung cancer by 30% because their husbands smoke.
2.Occupational exposure to lung cancer is the most important kind of occupational cancer.
It has been proved that the following occupational environmental carcinogens can increase the incidence of lung cancer: asbestos, radon, nickel, chromium, arsenicals, dichloromethyl ether, chromium compounds, nickel compounds, soot, tar, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in petroleum, uranium radium and other radioactive substances and their derivatives, mustard gas, vinyl chloride. Long-term exposure to substances such as beryllium, cadmium, silicon, and formalin can also increase the incidence of lung cancer. Common occupational exposures to lung cancer include: asbestos workers, including asbestos processing workers, installation and warming workers, asbestos tile removal workers; those engaged in chemical occupations, such as chemists, silicone workers, painters, printers and dyers, pharmaceutical workers, chemical and petroleum workers; those engaged in metal manufacturing, including rice gold workers, lead pipe workers, boiler manufacturing workers, metal mold workers, metal structure workers, copper refinery workers, etc. In addition, woodworkers, slag workers, wind drillers, planers, slag workers, brick crushers, construction workers, sanitation workers are also at high risk of lung cancer because they are exposed to a large amount of dust, which contains many small particles that are harmful to human body.
3.Atmospheric pollution In the past 40 years, there is little change in the smoking population in China, but the incidence of lung cancer has been increasing.
Atmospheric pollution is becoming more and more serious, and gradually it has become one of the important causes of lung cancer. The development of modern industry, the dense urban population, the rapid growth of coal and oil fuel use, so that especially urban air pollution has become a global social hazard. Exhaust gases from industrial development, automobile exhaust, asphalt highway volatiles, etc., contain many hydrocarbon carcinogens. Especially the current common haze weather, several components in PM2.5 are carcinogenic or carcinogenic, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, cadmium, chromium, nickel and other heavy metals, and the high amount of dust contained in haze days will have adverse effects on human health. Smokers who are also exposed to chemical carcinogens (such as asbestos, nickel, uranium and arsenic) will have a higher risk of lung cancer.
4. The first indoor pollution that needs attention is kitchen fumes.
It is known that kitchen fumes contain more than 300 kinds of harmful substances, and the most important lung carcinogen is dinitroso (DNP). The DNP inhaled from frying a table in the kitchen is 188 times more than that in fresh outdoor air. Cooking every day on a stove with poor ventilation system and very low combustion efficiency produces harmful substances equivalent to the harm of smoking two packs of cigarettes. When cooking, the high temperature fumes from frying and stir-frying dishes also produce toxic fumes, which deteriorate the local environment and damage the cellular tissue of the respiratory system for a long time. Women who cook for a long time without ventilation equipment such as range hoods have a 30-50% higher risk of lung cancer than in general.
Another important component of indoor pollution is coal-fired pollution. Through monitoring, the concentration of benzo(a)pyrene in indoor air of smoky coal-fired farmers exceeds the national recommended standard by more than 6000 times.
In addition, radon gas and its daughters are one of the main hazardous factors leading to human lung cancer. Usually basements, houses adjacent to basements, air-conditioned rooms, closed office buildings, hotels and houses built with building materials containing high radioactive elements are more prone to high indoor radon concentration.
5. Patients with chronic lung diseases such as tuberculosis, silicosis, pneumoconiosis and other basic diseases have higher incidence of lung cancer than normal people.
Because chronic inflammation and lung fiber scars occur in the bronchial mucosa under the stimulation of long-term chronic adverse substances, some lesions may cause bronchial epithelium to transform into cancer cells during the healing process.
6.Improper diet also has a certain relationship with the occurrence of lung cancer.
Eating fried and deep-fried food often on the roadside, especially roadside frying, is a high risk factor for lung cancer. These stalls often use poor quality oil and repeated high-temperature heating, which produces high-temperature fumes with particularly high concentration of toxic and harmful substances, however, scientific choice of food can be beneficial to lung cancer prevention.
7. Intrinsic factors such as family genetics and lowered immune function may also play a role in promoting the development of lung cancer.
People with immediate family members who have lung cancer are two times more likely to develop lung cancer than those without a family history of lung cancer. Many people have doubts about whether lung cancer is contagious. Lung cancer is not caused by bacteria or other microorganisms, and there is no direct pathogenic agent, so it is not contagious and does not require isolation. The family aggregation of lung cancer is related to the genetic inheritance in the family, which means that the bronchial epithelial cells of people with this genetic characteristic are more likely to develop malignant changes. However, such inheritance is not inevitable, and the occurrence of lung cancer is also influenced by the above-mentioned external factors, so there is no need to be overly nervous if there are people with lung cancer in the family.
By understanding the above factors of lung cancer, we suggest you to prevent the occurrence of lung cancer through the following ways
After quitting smoking, the risk of lung cancer decreases; after quitting smoking for 10 years, the risk of lung cancer is 50% of that of those who have not quit smoking. Even if smokers quit in middle age, the risk of lung cancer will be reduced in the future. Quitting before middle age reduces the risk attributed to tobacco by more than 90 percent. However, no matter how long one quits smoking, the risk of developing the disease does not reach the level of never smokers. So it’s never too late for smokers to quit, but the sooner the better! For the sake of your health and the health of your family and others, we recommend that you do not smoke, and that you do not smoke around your family or in public places. Smoking is harmful to all, refuse tobacco, start with me, start now.
2, reduce occupational exposure first need to understand their own work environment, whether they are often exposed to radioactive substances, carcinogenic hydrocarbons, arsenic chromium nickel and other metals, coal tar, asphalt oil, asbestos, mustard gas and other substances. For example, for workers who mine radioactive ores, they should take effective protective measures to minimize the dose of radiation exposure. For staff exposed to carcinogenic compounds, they must take various practical and effective labor protection measures, regulate their operations, and avoid or reduce their contact with carcinogenic factors. And regular medical checkups in hospitals and pay attention to lifestyle and enhance physical fitness.
3, the protection of air pollution prevention and control of air pollution requires national, personal and even global efforts, from the perspective of personal protection, in the weather of severe air pollution, residents need to properly strengthen the protection of respiratory inhalation. For example, the amount of dust and chemical toxins are high in hazy weather, residents should open windows less, wear masks outside, moderate vitamin D supplementation, light diet and drink more water, and it is best not to go out or morning exercise.
4. Avoid indoor pollution to reduce indoor pollution, try to avoid materials containing radioactive substances when choosing construction and decoration materials, keep ventilation and air permeability to reduce indoor radon level, and live in the house after decoration until the air quality is qualified; pay attention to opening windows and ventilation in daily life is also helpful to reduce radon gas damage. Improve kitchen ventilation, preferably install range hoods or exhaust fans; change cooking habits, do not overheat the frying pan when frying; use gaseous fuel instead of solid fuel.
5.The occurrence of lung cancer is the result of the imbalance between cancer-causing factors and the ability to fight cancer. No one can completely avoid the stimulation of multiple cancer-causing factors, while good immunity helps the body to monitor, kill and remove the growth of tumor cells. Regular life, happy mood, combination of work and rest, and physical exercise can help enhance the immunity of the body. Diet should increase the intake of vegetables and fruits in food, and eat more foods rich in carotene, vitamin c, vitamin E, folic acid and selenium, which are micro-existing elements. High fat, high cholesterol diet and alcohol consumption will increase the risk of lung cancer.
6.Cognize the early signs of lung cancer and have regular checkups. If lung cancer can be detected early, its cure rate is not low. At present, the 5-year survival rate of stage I lung cancer can reach 60% to 80%, and the 5-year survival rate of stage II lung cancer can reach 40% to 50%. For men with family history of tumor, long-term smokers older than 50 years old, men with irritating dry cough, blood in sputum, chest pain, significant weight loss, back pain, or frequent inflammation in a certain part of the lung, abnormal bone and joint, etc., they should be alerted and go to a specialized hospital for examination in time. However, not all lung cancer patients will cause the above symptoms, especially early stage lung cancer. Even residents who do not have the above risk factors and symptoms, especially those who are older than 45 years old, should have regular medical checkups for early detection of hidden lesions.
7.Patients with chronic respiratory diseases should not smoke because of the high incidence of lung cancer among those who suffer from chronic respiratory diseases and smoke. Regular hospital consultation, standardized treatment and increased compliance are of positive significance to control chronic respiratory diseases and reduce the incidence of lung cancer.
Overall, lung cancer is preventable and controllable. Experts say that lifestyle has to account for 84% of the impact on tumors. Not smoking, improving living environment, adjusting diet structure and enhancing health checkups can prevent lung cancer. In addition, quitting smoking is the most important. By effectively doing the above points, I believe we can keep lung cancer away from the door.