Diagnosis of lung cancer
Lung cancer is one of the worst diseases in the world today. It kills over one million people each year world wide and affects the lives of millions of others. The disease is painful and diffifult to treate, and if caught late has a very low recovery rate. The disease, when caught early enough, can be treated, but there are no general tests for the disease as there are for prostate or cervical cancer. It is amazing to realize that this disease, which is so terrible, could almost be completely irradicated. The primary cause of lung cancer is smoking and exposure to second hand smoke. There are over four hundred chemicals in tobacco smoke that have been shown to lead to cancer. We can prevent this disease for the most part, but it requires some education and good behavior to do so. In order for you to learn more about lung cancer you should learn a bit more about the symptoms of the disease and what it means to fight it. Described bellow are some of the tests for lung cancer, its symptoms, and information relating to the disease in general.
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The first thing that usually trigers a suspicion of lung cancer are symptoms. There are a number of symptoms, but they include things like unexplained weight loss, chest pain, a cough that will not go away, coughing up blood, jaundice, and bone pain. If you experience any of these symptoms you should immediately consult a doctor and have an examination. You should be particularly aware if you know that you are susceptable to the disease for one reason or another. Once the physician suspect lung cancer they will try various tests to ascertain if the symptoms actually indicate that disease.
The first thing that will probably happen is a standard chest x-ray. X-rays are not a definite measure or test but they can expose abnormalities or nodules in the lungs. A finer measure is the CT scan or MRI which gives a three dimensional image of the lungs. These tests are very valuable both to determine if the problem is cancer and to figure out what is happening with the tumors (if they are large or growing quickly).
If the X-ray and CT scan/MRI turn up some sort of questionable result there will be further tests. Usually this involves collection of sputum and a tissue byopsy. Once these tests show a positive result for lung cancer treatment options can be considered. Depending on the stage of the cancer and the type of cancer there are three different types of treatment. Radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery are the primary options, although combinations of these options are often used. Surgery is usually used when the cancer has been caught at an early stage.
Lung cancer and the treatments used to cure it are painful, but if the cancer is caught early the survival rate is over fifty percent. However, if the cancer is caught late in the stages, and especially when it has spread to other parts of the body, the recovery rate is closer to fifteen percent.
Dealing with a diagnosis of lung cancer can be very difficult and if you or a loved one have received the bad news you should consider finding a support group, of which there are many. Realize that many people do survive the disease but that the situation is very serious and that you need to learn as much as possible about the situation. The most important thing for everyone however, is to know about the causes of the disease and to prevent it from happening to them.
