Cancer has become the leading cause of death for the population in some cities in China. In Beijing, on average, more than 100 people are diagnosed with cancer every day, and lung cancer accounts for the highest proportion of all cancers, with one out of every 3-4 cancer patients suffering from lung cancer, and the death rate of lung cancer remains high. There are still some questions about lung cancer that need to be understood, let’s see what are overlooked below.
1.How do the lungs work in normal people?
The normal human body has two lungs. They are located in the thoracic cavity, one on each side, covered with two layers of moist film called pleura, with a small amount of liquid between the two layers, which has the function of lubrication and reducing friction. The lungs are the organs responsible for the respiratory function of the human body. We take in fresh air through inhalation, and the fresh air entering the lungs is transported to all parts of the body through the blood vessels of both lungs, and the carbon dioxide and other gases produced by human metabolism are eliminated from the body with exhalation.
2.What is lung cancer?
Lung cancer refers to malignant tumors occurring in the lungs, including primary lung cancer and metastatic lung cancer, and the commonly referred to lung cancer refers to primary lung cancer.
3.How does lung cancer occur?
When normal lung cells are affected by a number of factors, a series of genetic mutations occur, resulting in cells that would “automatically age and die” become “immortal” and grow rapidly into cell clusters, which are transferred to the brain, liver, bones and other organs. The cells grow rapidly and become clumps of cells that move to the territory where organs such as the brain, liver, and bones grow, expanding like an invader and slaughtering normal cells, eventually causing death. Lung cancer that grows in other organs is called metastatic lesions.
4.What kind of people are prone to get lung cancer?
Although more and more young people are developing cancer, the high incidence of lung cancer is around 50 years old. Smoking is the most important cause of lung cancer, and in recent years, with the increase in the number of women smoking, the incidence of lung cancer in women is on the rise. It should be noted that secondhand smoke can also increase the risk of lung cancer. Long-term cooks and housewives are also at high risk of lung cancer, and workers with long-term exposure to asbestos are also susceptible to lung cancer. Increasing air pollution is also a human health killer, and scientists have confirmed that PM2.5 particles can cause lung cancer to develop. There are also ionizing radiation, diet, genetic factors, etc.
5.How to prevent the occurrence of lung cancer?
After understanding the common causative factors of lung cancer, the preventive measures will be clear. Please turn on the range hood when cooking and clean it regularly, and eat less unhealthy food such as barbecue; those who work with asbestos should take good protective measures and have regular medical check-ups; try to go out less on hazy days and prepare air purifiers for yourself and your family if possible. In short, try to have a healthy diet, regular work and rest, exercise and keep a happy mood.
6.Is there any medicine or vaccine to prevent lung cancer?
There is no drug or vaccine approved for the prevention of lung cancer, not to mention health supplements that have never been clinically proven. Although scientists and doctors around the world are dedicated to research on cancer prevention, it is still a long way to go. While we are looking forward to perfect preventive measures, we also need to know more about lung cancer as a life killer and achieve early diagnosis and early treatment.
7.What are the early alarm symptoms of lung cancer?
When the following symptoms appear in your body, no matter how old you are, whether you smoke or not, how strong your body is in general and how well you have taken protective measures, you should be highly alert to the possibility of lung cancer and go to the hospital as soon as possible to seek help from professional physicians.
(1) Cough that lasts for more than 2-3 weeks or for which regular treatment is ineffective.
(2) Chest tightness and breathlessness after activity.
(3) Persistent chest or shoulder and back pain.
(4) Blood in the sputum or coughing up blood.
(5) Pneumonia that has lasted for a long time or for which regular treatment has failed.
(6) Unexplained fever, hoarseness, fatigue, poor mental health, weight loss, etc.
8.What are the diagnosis methods of lung cancer?
When your doctor suspects that you have lung cancer, a series of blood draws and radiographs will be done to clarify the diagnosis.
There are two main purposes of blood sampling.
Firstly, to clarify whether there is lung infection. It is important to note that some lung cancer patients may have a combination of lung infections, so the presence of an infection does not rule out lung cancer.
Secondly, in most people with cancer, there are certain substances in the blood that are closely related to the cancer cells and are often used to help diagnose the disease, which is the significance of serum tumor marker testing.
There are various types of X-ray, CT scan and PET-CT scan. X-ray is a screening test with limited diagnostic value, while CT scan is more accurate than X-ray and is an important method for early diagnosis of lung cancer. Compared with normal cells, lung cancer cells have a fast metabolism and greater demand for nutrients. PET-CT takes advantage of this characteristic of cancer cells to identify high metabolic lesions in various organs of the body and to detect both primary and metastatic lesions.
However, neither blood test nor radiography is the gold standard to confirm lung cancer diagnosis.
9.What are the criteria for confirming the diagnosis of lung cancer?
To confirm the diagnosis, cancer cells must be seen under the microscope, because the morphology of cancer cells under the microscope is fundamentally different from normal cells. Doctors will ask you to collect sputum specimens and repeatedly look for cancer cells under the microscope. This method has a low success rate and requires repeated specimens and repeated examinations, but the probability of confirming the diagnosis is still very low.
More commonly used methods for confirming the diagnosis are bronchoscopy and lung puncture biopsy. Both of these methods are used to obtain diseased lung tissues directly, and after professional processing by pathologists, the cell morphology is observed under the microscope to identify whether the cells are cancerous or not. The advantage is the high probability of confirmation and low probability of misdiagnosis, but the disadvantage is that the operation itself is a kind of trauma to the human body and also has certain risks. However, there is no need to worry, as the operation is minimally invasive and the risk is minimal when performed by a qualified specialist.
10.How to read and understand your lung cancer diagnosis report?
The diagnosis of lung cancer usually includes pathological type and stage. Nowadays, because of the excellent achievements of targeted drugs in lung cancer treatment, some lung cancer diagnosis also includes molecular diagnosis, i.e. genotyping. There is a reason for pathological and genotyping of lung cancer: lung cancer is a generic term for a type of cancer that is divided into different subtypes, each with different treatment principles. Pathological typing can guide physicians on which chemotherapeutic agents to choose, and genotyping can guide physicians on which molecularly targeted therapeutic agents to choose.