January 29th, 2010 by Peter
For anyone who has had any treatment for lung cancer, it is important to take care of yourself afterwards. For example, you may get side effects or the cancer could even come back.
By having regular checkups it is possible to notice any changes in your health. In this way, you have a better chance of getting the proper treatment as quickly as possible.
The type of checkups that you may expect would be a physical examination, chest x-rays, and various other laboratory tests. You should understand that it is important to make sure that you do have these tests a regular basis.
Of course if you’re not feeling well in between, then you should make an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible.
Cancer can have a devastating effect on many people. Nowadays, there is also emotional support offered and this should be used.
There are many issues facing anyone who has cancer. It is not just the physical symptoms involved, there are also many fears and worries and concerns daily. In addition, family and friends have to deal with it also.
So a part of your treatment plan should be focusing on helping you to cope with the emotional and psychological difficulties that you will experience.
This support will come from many areas, including but not limited to doctors, nurses, social workers, and other professionals. Try to seek out cancer support groups in your area, they will provide advice support and comfort. This support is important, because you will not feel so isolated with your condition.
Being a member of such a group provides a sympathetic environment where you can talk about your concerns with others who also have cancer or have had in the past.
Just by talking about the problem can help your attitude, which is important in fighting the disease. Your local healthcare professionals will be aware of any such groups, and you should ensure to remain in contact with them.
January 20th, 2010 by Peter
As you know, our lungs are the most vital organs of our body. It absorbs oxygen from the air and distributes it to different parts of our body; it also expels carbon dioxide from our body into the air. When however, malignant cells develop in our lungs, we suffer from lung cancer.In this article I will tell you whether lung cancer is curable or not.
Needless to say, the primary cause behind lung cancer is smoking. It is sad that even after a lot of government-sponsored propaganda against smoking and its ill-effects, people continue their smoking habits, without realizing how much they are damaging their bodies. And if you think that you only need to stop smoking in order to cure lung cancer, you are dead wrong! Along with abstaining from smoking yourself, you should also try to live and work in a smoke-free environment. This is because passive smoking can also affect your lungs as much as active smoking does.
There are many different symptoms of lung cancer. If you are coughing frequently, with so much pressure that blood is coming out of your lungs, then in all probability you are suffering from lung cancer. Also, if you are having difficulty in breathing, then too it is possible that you are suffering from lung cancer. However, mere occurrence of these symptoms should not lead you to believe that you have lung cancer. I’d suggest you consult with a professional doctor because only a qualified doctor can tell you whether you are suffering from lung cancer or not.
In order to diagnose lung cancer, your doctor will ask you to go through different types of tests. The common tests that are used to diagnose lung cancer are x-ray, sputum test, CT scans and biopsies.
And it is really easy to cure lung cancer. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the two ways to cure lung cancer. Mostly, doctors use a combination of both the therapies in order to cure lung cancer. In some cases, surgery maybe used instead of radiation, especially if cancer has not spread beyond the lungs of the patient. However, these treatments are quite costly. So if you are not yet a lung cancer sufferer I’d recommend that you take immediate steps to prevent it. And the first step to prevent lung cancer is to stop smoking.
January 10th, 2010 by editor
Cigarette smoking has been condemned most especially due to lung cancer. This is because lung cancer rakes as the number one killer for men. In the states along, thousands due a year due to lung cancer. The number one cause for lung cancer is still and will always be, smoking. Nicotine crawls deep into the lungs to the point of eating the organ away while clogging at it deeply. Soon the lungs get used to the substance and that is when addiction seeps in. It is important to note that lung cancer is especially perilous to the old and the young. The middle age adults being the only ones strongly suit to face it. We cant be twenty something forever though so its best smoking is quitted on while the body is still apt and able to fight against nicotine dependence.
January 8th, 2010 by Peter
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the American population and the western world. Lung cancer use to be the leading cause of cancer deaths in American men only, but since 1988, women have caught up with men and since then lung cancer is leading cause of cancer deaths in women as well. Well over 170,000 cases of lung cancers are diagnosed in the United States each year. Very few fortunate ones get cured from this miserable disease. About 157,000 people die as the direct result of lung cancer.
The mortality related to lung cancer exceeds the combined mortality rates of second (breast cancer), third (prostate cancer), and fourth (colon cancer) leading causes of cancer death. How would we react if every day a Boing 747 crashes and all the passengers die? That’s what happens with lung cancer. About 430 people die every day from lung cancer.
Despite the high rates of cancer deaths, lung cancer receives much less attention compared to other cancers, especially breast cancer. Lung cancer research receives much less funding, and general public takes much less interest in lung cancer. Even though lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among men and women, very little research and scientific progress occurs in the field of lung cancer.
It is estimated that about $1,723 per cancer deaths is spent on lung cancer research where as the corresponding figures for breast cancer ($13,953), prostate cancer ($10,318) and colorectal cancer (4,618) are much higher. It is interesting to note that the department of defense funds breast cancer, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer but not lung cancer.
Part of the problem associated with lung cancer research funding is the fact that, there are not many lung cancer survivors to lobby for the cause of lung cancer. High mortality rates associated with lung cancer leaves very few survivors to fight for their cause, and even those fortunate survivors are not in very good health, since most of these survivors are patients who had undergone extensive lung resection.
There is also a stigma associated with lung cancer. Unlike many other types of cancers risk of lung cancer is very much linked with smoking. Many who deal with lung cancer patients and the patient himself think that the disease is the direct result of misbehavior. This fills a feeling of guilt on the lung cancer patients who tend to blame themselves. Also this acts against any fund-raising program aimed at lung cancer where people unconsciously feel that lung cancer is a disease that these patients brought on themselves.
More funding and research are urgently needed for lung cancer. We all have to join our hands to fight this miserable enemy of the human species.
January 7th, 2010 by Peter
Lung cancer is generally divided into two main categories; small cell and non small cell. The small cell lung cancer is further divided into several additional subcategories. The vast majority (approximately 80 percent) of people diagnosed have non small cell lung cancer.
Symptoms of non small cell lung cancer include breathlessness, chest pain, coughing up blood, fatigue, fever and weight loss, and is usually diagnosed by imaging, lung biopsy, and/or blood tests. These symptoms normally do not manifest themselves until the disease has become widespread, making the treatment much more difficult.
Depending on which type of non small cell lung cancer is present, the stage it is in, the exact location of the cancerous mass, the number and type of symptoms present and the overall patient health will determine the outcome of the treatment.
If the disease is caught early, it can be treated by surgery and the odds of defeating it are pretty good. Once it spreads to the surrounding chest tissues and the lymph nodes, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are utilized for treatment. The five year survival rate for non small cell lung cancer, if it is caught in the early stages, is greater than 50 percent. However, if it has reached the advanced stages, the survival rate drops to a depressing two percent.
The good news, non small cell lung cancer is not as aggressive as small cell lung cancer, if a person has been diagnosed wtih that, they are lucky to survive two to four months.
Approximately 25 percent of the time, there are no symptoms in the patient, and the cancer is detected during a routine screening. However, in 75 percent of the cases, there are symptoms that are present.
So if you, or a loved one, have any of the common symptoms, shortness of breath, coughing up blood, fatigue, chest pain or unexplained weight loss, schedule an appointment with your family physician, he can run the necessary tests to determine what you are suffering from. Remember, the odds of defeating this disease are much better the earlier that you are diagnosed.