When I was 14 my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, which had quickly spread to her bones, then brain. I was so lost and confused; my mother never smoked a day in her life. She was a healthy woman who ate right and exercised regularly, the doctors gave her 6 months to live, and I lost her at 16. Although, there are so many people in the world who do not smoke and develop lung cancer, there’s many ways a non-smoker can get lung cancer: environmental, second hand smoking, as well as some other natural effects that can cause a person to develop lung cancer.
There are many types of lung cancers. Small cell lung cancers (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), this classification are based upon the look of the tumor, the cells themselves (“ lung Cancer”). These two types of cancers grow and spread in different ways and may have different treatment options, so a distinction between these two types is important (Genndes). SCLC makes up about 20% of lung cancers and is the most aggressive and rapidly growing of all lung cancers (“ Lung Cancer”).
SCLC is related to cigarette smoking, with only 1% of these tumors occurring in nonsmokers. SCLC metastasize rapidly too to-many sites within the body and are most often discovered after they have spread widely (“ Lung cancer”). Referring to a specific cell appearance often seen when examining samples of SCLC under the microscope, these cancers are sometimes called oat cell carcinomas (“ lung Cancer”). NSCLC are the most common lung cancers, it’s a cause for about 80% of all lung cancers.
NSCLC can be divided into three main types that are named based upon the type of cells found in the tumor: Adenocarcinomas-(a malignant tumor with cells arranged in patterns similar to those of a gland) are the most commonly seen type of NSCLC in the U. S (“ Lung Cancer”). They cover up to 50% of NSCLC. While adenocarcinomas are associated with smoking, like other lung cancers, this type is seen as well in nonsmokers who develop lung cancer (“ Lung Cancer”). Most adenocarcinomas arise in the outer, or out-ling, areas of the lungs.
Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma is a subtype of adenocarcinoma that can develop around multiple sites in the lungs and spreads along the earlier alveolar walls (Genndes). Squamous cell carcinomas were once more common than adenocarcinomas; currently, they account for about 30% of NSCLC, also known as epidermoid carcinomas, squamous cell cancers arise most frequently in the central chest area in the bronchi (“ Lung Cancer”). Large cell carcinomas, sometimes known as undistinguishable carcinomas, are the least common type of NSCLC (lung Cancer”). Many are detected early enough to get surgical resection (Genndes).
Cancers of supporting lung tissue such as smooth muscle, blood vessels, or cells involved in the immune response can rarely occur in the lung (Genndes). Metastatic cancers from other major tumors in the body can be found in the lung (“ Lung Cancer”). Tumors from anywhere in the body may spread to the lungs either through the bloodstream, through the lymphatic system, or directly from nearby organs. Metastatic tumors are most often multiple, spread throughout the lung, focused on the bordering of the lung rather than central areas of the lung (“ Lung Cancer”).
There are many reasons and ways and causes people can develop lung cancer. One way is passive smoking or inhaling tobacco smoke secondhand (“ 5 Causes”). If you live with a smoker, you have a 24% increased risk to develop lung cancer (“ 5 Causes”). Another form of getting it is radon gas, an estimated 12% of lung cancer deaths yearly in the U. S and shown to be the partially related to radon gas exposure (5 causes). Radon gas can travel through soil and enter people’s houses through gaps in the foundation, pipes, drains or other openings (“ 5 Causes”).
One out of every 15 houses in the U. S has dangerous levels of radon gas (“ 5 Causes”). There are test to detect radon gas, it is odorless and invisible (“ 5 Causes”). Air pollution is also a problem researcher’s found, from vehicles, industries and power plants raise the likely hood of developing lung cancer (“ 5 Causes”). Exposed individual’s up to 2, 000 lung cancer deaths a year (5 Cancer). Experts say breathing polluted air to lung exposer from highly polluted air can carry a risk of getting lung cancer just like passive smoking (“ 5 Causes”).
There are many ways to diagnosing lung cancer but some people won’t even know they have it tell years down the road. One way to determine lung cancer is by location, followed by the stage which would factor into how severe the diseases is and the size of the tumor, Also if it had already spread to the lymph nodes (“ lung Cancer”). It is so important for doctors to know the difference between (non-small cell and small cell) because the treatments are very different (“ Lung Cancer”). When diagnosing new cancer the doctor must find out how far along it has advanced (McDonald 227).
The different stages of cancer depend on how bad the diagnoses are (McDonald 227). Stage one has yet to spread, stage two is developed a little more and stage 3 have made it to the lymph nodes (McDonald 227). Stage four is the worst; it has spread to to-many areas and is untreatable (McDonald 227). Up to 25% of people who get lung cancer, the cancer is first discovered on a routine chest X-ray or CT scan as a solitary small mass sometimes called a coin lesion, since on a two-dimensional X-ray or CT scan, the round tumor looks like a coin (Genndes).
These patients with small, single masses a lot report no symptoms at the time the cancer is discovered (Genndes). Some symptoms of lung cancer are coughing, chest pain and spiting up blood (“ Lung Cancer”). There are many treatments for cancer, but unfortunately they make you very sick and weaken your immune system. For instance there’s chemo therapy which works by killing your healthy cells along with the cancer ones (Genndes). Chemo can kill you or make you really sick it weakens your immune system (Genddes). There is also radiation therapy that can cause fatigue skin irritation hair loss (T. G).
Radiation can also cause infertility and sterility (T. G). In the film “ forks over knives” they speak about an alternative treatment not just for cancer but for a lot or other diseases. Dr. Cambell a nutritional Dr. and Dr. Esseletlyn advocate that they have found a plant food based diet to help reverse or shrink the tumor. These discoveries inspired Campbell and Esselstyn, who didn’t know each other yet, to conduct several groundbreaking studies. One of them took place in China and is still among the broadest health-related investigations ever carried out.
Their research led them to find: degenerative diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented—and in many cases reversed—by adopting a whole-foods, plant-based diet. The filmmakers traveled with Drs. Campbell and Esselstyn on their separate but similar paths, from their childhood farms where they both produced “ nature’s perfect food”; to China and Cleveland, where they explored ideas that challenged the proven thinking and shook their own beliefs.
In the film, cameras follow “ reality patients” who have chronic conditions from heart disease to diabetes. Doctors teach the patients how to adopt a whole-foods plant-based diet as the main approach to treat their treatment. The patients found they never felt better and their symptoms were reversing. Lung cancer is the most common cause of death due to cancer in both men and women all over the world, as well being one of the highest costing diseases.
The American Cancer Society estimated that 222, 520 new cases of lung cancer in the U. S. will be diagnosed and 157, 300 deaths due to lung cancer would occur in 2010 (T. G). The U. S. National Cancer Institute says, approximately one out of every 14 men and women in the U. S, Will be diagnosed with cancer of the lung at some point in their life (“ Lung Cancer”). Lung cancer is mainly a disease of the senior population; almost 70% of people diagnosed with lung cancer are over 65 years of age, while less than 3% of lung cancers occur in people under the age of 45 (“ Lung Cancer”).
Lung cancer was not common prior to the 1930s but increased dramatically over the decades as tobacco smoking increased (“ 5 Causes”). In many developing countries, the rate of lung cancer is beginning to fall, after public education about the dangers of cigarette smoking and the overview of effective smoking-cessation programs (Genndes). The costs of lung cancers have been $328 million (T. G). Over 82% of this total was spent in the first year for diagnostic tests, therapy (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or combinations of these), hospitalization and follow-up costs (T. G).
The average five year cost per case was $21, 000, and ranged from a high of $29, 860 for limited disease SCLC, to a low of $16, 500 for Stage IV NSCLC (“ Lung Cancer”). Lung cancer can develop by anything, smokers are not the only ones affected by lung cancer, are environment like natural gas, polluting are air with cars, powers plants and secondhand smoke are raising the chances of lung cancer in all of us. There is hope for the people who develop lung cancer; there are treatments out there, maybe even preventions.
