Lung cancer (lung cancer) – causes, symptoms, treatment

Proven content

Lung cancer is one of the most common and poor prognosis malignancies. It is caused, inter alia, by exposure to toxic substances, including tobacco smoke, polluted air, as well as secondhand smoke. The first symptoms include shortness of breath, coughing and spitting blood. Lung cancer is called a disease of civilization.

Lung cancer (lung cancer) – causes

Smoking tobacco, so not only cigarettes, but also pipes, cigars or the so-called water pipe (shisha) is the strongest risk factor for lung cancer. Less dangerous, but also dangerous, is breathing cigarette smoke, i.e. passive smokingto which children are very often exposed. The risk of developing lung cancer increases with the duration of addiction and the amount of cigarettes (tobacco) smoked.

As mentioned above, there are variants of lung cancer that arise independently of tobacco, on average every tenth patient develops it. The etiology of these cancers is related to exposure to toxic substances, such as asbestos, aromatic hydrocarbons, nickel, chromium, and arsenic compounds. Metastatic tumors may also develop in the lungs, most often breast cancer, melanoma, and kidney cancer.

Lung cancer is a disease of people over 40, with the peak incidence in the seventh decade of life. In the world and in Poland, it is the most common malignant neoplasm in men; women are more likely to develop breast and colorectal cancer, but with the growing number of women addicted to nicotine, especially young women, the incidence of this type of cancer is also increasing.

Lung cancer (lung cancer) – symptoms

Early lung cancer does not usually cause any discomfort. If symptoms are present, they are often underestimated or attributed to other medical conditions experienced by smokers, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The persistence of cough or a change in its nature, coughing up bloody mucus, recurrent pneumonia in the same location require verification by means of a chest X-ray, possibly also further, extended diagnostics. Advanced lung cancer can present with shortness of breath, hoarseness, difficulty swallowing or chest pain. The first symptoms may also be caused by the so-called paranaoplastic syndromes or the presence of metastases, most often in the bones, liver and brain. Often with lung cancer developing into concealment there are so-called paraneoplastic syndromes

Guz Pancoasta – this is bronchial cancer, which is located in the upper part of the lung, on the left or right side. It is a tumor that spreads rapidly and infiltrates the surrounding area – the chest wall; pleura, ribs, vertebrae, nerve plexuses or vessels. The first symptom of this cancer is shoulder pain.

Horner’s syndrome – these are the symptoms of advanced lung cancer and include drooping eyelid, collapsed eyeball and constriction of the pupil. The reason for this is a tumor that damages some nerve fibers – the stellate ganglion, which plays an important role in the nervous system (it forms the so-called sympathetic trunk).

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Types of lung cancer

Lung cancer comprises several dozen types of malignant neoplasms. They may have a different structure, location (central, peripheral, closer to the lung cavity or the chest wall) or different prognosis. Regarding the histopathological division of lung cancer, the following can be distinguished: small cell lung cancer (it is about 20% of cases) i non-small cell lung cancer (which accounts for as much as 80% of all lung cancers). The following is a more detailed breakdown of lung cancer:

1. we divide non-small cell carcinoma into adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and large cell carcinoma;
2. small cell carcinoma;
3. other, including carcinoid tumors.

Lung cancer diagnosis

In the diagnosis of lung cancer, the location of the tumor should be considered first. For this, doctors recommend taking an X-ray followed by a chest tomography. It is important to find any metastases in your lymph nodes as this helps in choosing the right type of treatment. If there are metastases in the lymph nodes, the operation will not be effective. The diagnosis also includes PET (positron emission tomography), which involves the diagnostic excision of lymph nodes, usually above the upper edge of the sternum.

If the patient has a Pancoast tumor, MRI should be performed, which helps to identify the infiltration of the nervous system structures, which is quite characteristic of this type of tumor. It is very important that even a correct X-ray image of the chest does not exclude the presence of a lung cancer.

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Further diagnosis of lung cancer is based on determining the structure of the tumor, and the method used for this purpose depends on its location. The histopathological structure of the tumor can be determined by:

1. bronchoscopy: a flexible apparatus is inserted into the trachea and bronchi, by means of which a sample of the tumor visible inside the bronchus is taken or a tumor biopsy is performed outside the bronchi;
2. transthoracic biopsy: is performed when the tumor is near the chest wall;
3. mediastinoscopy or biopsy of supraclavicular lymph nodes: performed when the lymph nodes are enlarged or suspected that they may be attacked by a lung cancer;
4. thoracotomy: it is used when other methods have not helped to confirm / exclude lung cancer. Thoracotomy consists in opening the chest and introducing special tools into it. It may be a small webcam (videtoracoscopy) with which a specialist looks at what is happening inside the chest and assesses whether there is cancer.
5. microscopic examination of saliva;
6. research on tumor markers;
7. computed tomography of the abdominal cavity or brain.

The doctor selects the treatment method and further treatment based on the assessment of the patient’s respiratory efficiency and his general condition. A helpful test is spirometry and other tests. It is important to determine how advanced a lung cancer is, and this requires patience on the part of both the doctor and the patient. How advanced the disease is is determined by taking into account: tumor size; the location of the tumor and the type of tissue affected; metastases in individual groups of lymph nodes; metastases in other organs, e.g. brain, liver, adrenal glands.

After carrying out all diagnostic tests and determining the stage of lung cancer, the doctor undertakes appropriate procedures and implements treatment.

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Lung cancer (lung cancer) – treatment

Treatment of lung cancer depends on many factors: the type of cells from which the tumor originates, its stage, the general condition of the patient, etc. In non-small cell cancer, the basis of radical therapy (for cure) is surgery, sometimes preceded by chemotherapy to reduce the tumor mass. When the tumor is inoperable, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and symptomatic treatment are used to alleviate symptoms and extend the survival time of patients. Small cell carcinoma, which accounts for about 20% of cases, is very susceptible to chemotherapy, which, under favorable circumstances, may lead to long-term remissions of the disease. It is also combined with radiation therapy.

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Lung cancer – can the disease be avoided?

Of course there is a chance to minimize the risk of lung cancer, the first and most basic piece of advice is quitting smoking. The more time has passed since quitting, the lower the risk of lung cancer.

The benefits of quitting the cigarette addiction are not only related to the reduced risk of lung cancer, thanks to giving up tobacco we can avoid many other diseases, for example heart and blood vessels. It is worth knowing that there is no such thing as lung cancer screening tests, although you can regularly take pictures of the chest (e.g. x-rays of the lungs), but this does not reduce the number of deaths (relative to the entire population) from cancer, but increases the number of newly diagnosed cancer.

As for the prognosis for this tumor, only about 5% of patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer survive 10 years, while in the case of small cell carcinoma, about 3% of patients survive for 20 years.