Lung Cancer
The human
body is composed of many types of cells which
is the vital part of our body. Cancer develops
in the body cell. Normal body cells grow, divide
and replace tissues in a particular ratio to keep
a human body healthy.
Sometimes these normal cells starts
working abnormally like growing and dividing too
fast and making excessive tissues in the body.
These tissues then turn into tumors.
Types Of Lung
Cancer
There are two major types of lung cancer which
is differentiated after looking under microscope.
These two lung cancer are different from each
other. These lung cancers grow and spread differently
from each other and so the treatment of each lung
cancer is different.
Following are the two major
lung cancers
- Small cell lung cancer
- Non-small cell lung cancer
Small Cell Lung Cancer
This kind of lung cancer appears in almost every
20 out 100 lung cancer. It is not as common as
Non-Small Lung Cancer. This type of lung cancer
usually appears in person who smokes. In this
lung cancer the cells of cancers are small. These
small cancer cells are also called as ‘oat
cell’ cancer due to malignant cell shape.
Small cell lung cancer grows fast. The doctors
usually treat small cell lung cancer with chemotherapy
rather than any other option such as surgery.
If the small cell lung cancer is diagnose in
its early stage it responds well on chemotherapy
and radiation. With the above mention treatment
it reduces the risk of spreading and with continuous
treatment it almost shrinks tumor. With continuous
treatment it extends survival rate of the patient
from 15 to 18 months or 2-year to 5-years.
But on the other hand if the disease grown to
extensive level it do response to chemotherapy
and radiation but the survival chances of the
patient get maximum to 9 to 10 months or might
be sometimes to 2years. This is rarely reported
with extensive disease.
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
This type of lung cancer is more common rather
than small cell lung cancer. Non-small cell lung
cancer grows and spreads very slowly. Non-small
cell lung cancer is very harmful to body and a
threat to life. There three types of non-small
cell cancer and they are named in which the cancer
developed.
The following are the
types of the non-small cell cancer.
- Adenocarcinoma
- Squamous cell carcinoma
- Large cell carcinoma
Adencarcinoma
Women are more likely to be effected with Adenocarcinoma.
Adenocarcinoma. usually hits the mucous gland
from where it begins. This is the most frequently
diagnosed type of lung tumor.
Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Squamous cell carcinoma is a slow growing kind
of a cancer and it usually begins in the bronchial
tubes. It is seen in 30 to 35 percent of cases
of lung cancer.
Large Cell Carcinoma
Large cell carcinoma is a very rare form of non-small
cell cancer. It is usually been observed in 5
to 15 percent of cases. Large cell cancer is the
worst than Squamous carcinoma. The tumor develops
in isolation or in masses and it tends to be large
at the time of diagnosis.
Symptoms Of Lung Cancer
The symptoms of lung cancer are constant chest
pain, blood when coughing, shortness of breath,
wheezing, continuous cough which gets worse with
time, problems with pneumonia or bronchitis, swelling
of neck and face, loss of appetite, weight loss
and fatigue. When these symptoms are present patient
should immediately check with a doctor.
Diagnosis
The doctor will ask for the medical history, smoking
history, family history of cancer of the patient,
perform a physical examination and make specialized
medical test.
Medical test includes.
- CHEST X- RAY. This is the first and the basic
test.
- CT SCAN. A computer generated specialized
x-ray.
- SPUTUM TEST. Mucus from the patients cough
is examined under a microscope.
- BIOPSY. Sample tissue from the effected part
is taken and examined under a microscopy. This
is the only way to certain that if there is
a lung cancer present.
- NEEDLE ASPIRATION. In this test the doctor
will insert a needle in the patient’s
chest with the help of x-ray to obtain the fluids
surrounding the lungs to ensure the presence
of cancer cell.
- BRONCHOSCOPY. A well lit-tube is passed in
the patient’s lungs while the patient
is under sedation. Or the tube can be passed
either by mouth or nose and the doctor is able
to see the air passages in the lungs.
Treatment
The treatment depends on the condition of the
lung cancer because sometimes combination of treatment
is required depending on the size location and
the extent. Treatment varies with the type of
lung cancer. That is to prevent cancer cells to
grow and to destroy them.
Surgery
In this kind of treatment the tumor of
the lungs is removed which is a small part of
lung is removed called segmental or wedge. And
if an entire lobe of lung is removed it is called
lobotomy. When the entire lung is removed it is
called pneumonectomy.
Chemotherapy
An anticancer drug is used to kill cancer
cell through out the body. Sometimes this drug
is used topical and sometimes it has to be injected
directly into vein of the patient to control cancer
growth and to prevent it from further growing.
Radiation Therapy
This is a treatment in which a high energy rays
are used to kill cancer cell. this can be used
before therapy and after therapy also so that
to kill cancer cell which are in remained after
surgery. Sometimes doctor prefer to use both radioactive
therapy and chemotherapy instead of surgery.
Photodynamic Therapy
In this kind of therapy a special chemical is
injected into the blood stream. This chemical
is then absorbed by the effected body cell leaving
normal cells. When the laser light is aimed on
the cancer the chemical gets activated and kills
the chemical absorbed cancer cells. |
