At a very basic level, cancer occurs when something goes wrong with a cell. Just one little error in the cell means a growth of more and more cells with that inbuilt error and before you know it, you have a number of cells that can band together and form a tumor. At times, some cells break away and travel to other areas of the body, causing the cancer to spread. Very often, these tumors are benign in which case surgery could take care of them. However, in many cases, it becomes malignant and grows and spreads, waging war on the body as it moves along.
The condition can be primary lung cancer or secondary lung cancer and this depends on whether the cancer originated in the lungs or spread to the lungs from another part of the body. Lung cancer happens to one of the most common of cancers, accounting for over 15% of cancer statistics. Lung cancer can take a long time to develop and because of this, one very often finds people over the age of seventy suffering from it. This form of cancer could affect both men and women, though more men seem to suffer from it than women.
The two main types of lung cancers are Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and more often than not, the cause is smoking. What is sad is that very often, lung cancer cannot be cured and though treatment can contain and manage it for a while, it usually is fatal. Lung cancer can mean the attack on the regular cells begins in the lungs or it could be an attack from outside. The usual treatment once it is diagnosed is chemotherapy and radiation and in cases where necessary, surgery. Of course, if the person is a smoker, that’s one bad habit that will need to be given up immediately. In fact, stopping smoking can actually reverse the risk of developing lung cancer provided the condition has not already occurred in the lungs.
There has been a lot of research that has been done on lung cancer and the research is ongoing. Thanks to the research, there are targeted therapies now that blast the tumor without leaving a trail of terrible side effects for the patient to suffer from. However, considering that this happens to be one of the most common cancers, perhaps there isn’t enough funding. The lungs are such an essential part of living for all of us and cancer in the lungs is a terrible thing to suffer from. This is why it makes a lot of sense to stay far from tobacco smoke – quitting is the best way if you are addicted. The tragic thing is, it isn’t just the ones who smoke that are at risk but the passive smokers as well. That’s why smoking needs to be stopped and stopped immediately so that the lung cancer rates can come down all over the world. If more and more people who don’t smoke say Enough, then perhaps we can soon bid goodbye to lung cancer.