Squamous cell or epidermoid carcinoma is also the form that spreads the most slowly. Adenocarcinoma accounts for 25-30 per cent of cases; large cell carcinoma, the rarest form, for about 16 per cent. These three lung cancers are often referred to as non-small cell lung cancers.

Their treatment differs from that of the fourth type known as small cell, or oat cell, carcinoma. Though surgery may be the treatment of choice for non-small cell cancers, small cell carcinoma - the most rapidly spreading type of lung cancer - is almost never treated surgically.

Although various substances can damage lung cells and cause them to become cancerous, the main cause of lung cancer is undoubtedly cigarette smoking.

This conclusion is based on many extensive studies and observations, not the least of which is the fact that over the past 100 years, lung cancer has increased at about the same rate as cigarette smoking.

The connection between lung cancer and smoking has been dramatically demonstrated in women, who have taken up smoking in increasing numbers during the last 60 years.

The apparent result is that in 1985 lung cancer became the number one cancer killer of women in the United States; it is likely, therefore, to become so around the rest of the world as well.

Exposure to radiation and to various chemicals - such as asbestos - may trigger lung cancer, but of all lung cancer patients studied, only one in ten had not smoked cigarettes or other tobacco products. No matter what actually triggers the disease or what form it takes, lung cancer is always serious.

This is true not only because it affects vital organs, but because it often doesn't reveal its symptoms in the early stages of development. For this reason, lung cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat.

Since the lungs enable us to breathe, you would expect that any signs of cancer in them would affect our breathing. And this is generally true, although some symptoms of lung cancer may appear to be - at least to you - unrelated to breathing.

The most common symptoms of lung cancer are a persistent cough; the coughing up of blood; persistent chest pains; frequent, inexplicable attacks of pneumonia or bronchitis; a hoarse voice and unexplained shortness of breath.

People with lung cancer may also tire easily, become less interested in eating and loose weight.

Although symptoms may also be the result of other conditions, some of which may not be serious, it is important that this assumption is not left to the individual. If not and treated at an early stage, lung cancer may be intractable.

The general rule in diagnosing lung cancer is to begin by performing the simplest and safest examinations and tests - those that cause the least discomfort to the patient.

After ordering X-rays of the lungs and the air passages, the doctor will use special techniques to create three-dimensional pictures of the lungs, the outline of the tubes - bronchi - through which air passes into the lungs and the pattern of blood vessels in them.

Whether or not the tests reveal anything abnormal, your doctor will probably ask you to cough up sputum - fluid from the lungs and bronchi.

If you have lung cancer, it is possible that cancer cells will show up in the sputum when examined under a microscope.

The object in the treatment of lung cancer is the removal of all cancerous cells. This may be accomplished in a number of ways. If the cancer is relatively small or confined to a specific part of the lung (and is not small cell carcinoma), it may be surgically removed.

Sometimes the cancer is first treated with radiation to reduce the size. In other instances, radiotherapy is applied after the operation to destroy remaining cancerous cells.

In other cases, radiation is used before and after surgery to increase the chances of destroying all cancer cells. The extent of the surgery will depend on the extent of the cancer: in some instances, the whole lung may have to be removed. If this is the case, the other lung will have to do the work of two lungs.

Early detection is absolutely vital, once the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes near the lung, chemotherapy and radiotherapy may reduce the symptoms, the size of the tumour and the rate at which the tumour spreads, but will rarely cure the lung cancer.


Article Source: Lung Cancer Guide