Every day a person follows his dream, sets goals and achieves them. While he is healthy and full of strength, he can take any mountain on his shoulder. But everything can change dramatically if a person becomes sick and the disease is fatal. Prevention, treatment, diagnosis and clinic of lung cancer further. In the meantime, you should learn more about this body.
What are lungs?
Lungs are a paired organ of air breathing in humans, mammals, birds, reptiles. Lung cancer is a malignant tumor that develops in the epithelial tissue or in the bronchi. Such a neoplasm differs from other oncological diseases in that there are no symptoms in the early stages. The second significant difference between this tumor and others is that there is a direct relationship between the development of lung cancer and smoking. In 95% of patients, smoking is the cause. Lung cancer is much more common in men who are inattentive to their health. According to statistics, representatives of the strong half of humanity smoke more often than women. Tobacco smoke contains a large number of carcinogens, which provoke the appearance of cancerous tumors.
With constant irritation of the lungs with tobacco smoke, cell degeneration occurs. If initially the cancer cell is single, then further year after year the tumor grows and already at the first stage it can number millions of cells. This process can take decades, therefore, if the disease is detected, then you need to take action immediately, because further the process accelerates. But not only smokers are at risk, so-called passive smokers are also at serious risk, that is, people who do not smoke directly, but inhale tobacco smoke. Smokers are 23 times more likely to get sick than people who lead a healthy lifestyle.
In most cases, lung cancer develops asymptomatically. But when the first signs appear, then this indicates a sufficiently developed tumor. First of all, there is a cough, shortness of breath, hemoptysis is rare. There is weight loss, fever, weakness, swelling of the neck, face, there may be joint pain. This indicates advanced stages of lung cancer. The cough can be either dry or with a coughing up a certain amount of sputum. The early stages (first or second) are most often detected during preventive examinations or by accident. Among the diagnostic methods, the most common x-ray of the lungs. But this study is not very informative, because small tumors at an early stage may be invisible. A more effective option is computed tomography.
Stages of a malignant tumor
In the development of a lung cancer clinic, several stages can be traced:
- At the first, the patient makes no complaints. It is possible to detect a tumor at this stage of development only by conducting special examinations, not regular routine examinations, but X-ray irradiation or endoscopic examination.
- The second stage of development and the clinic of lung cancer is characterized by x-ray manifestations, that is, at this phase, the disease can be detected by preventive fluorography or x-ray examination.
- The third phase is characterized by a violent manifestation of clinical symptoms. At this stage, the diagnosis, as a rule, does not cause any difficulties not only for oncologists, but also for general practitioners and, unfortunately, it is very difficult to treat a lung cancer in this phase of development. Therefore, to identify the disease in the early stages, it is mandatory to undergo preventive examinations. This will allow for timely, correct and adequate treatment.
Symptoms
It is important to know the clinical guidelines for lung cancer. Preventive examinations should be carried out by all people every year without exception, especially those over 45 years old. Regular examinations include mandatory fluorography, and if any changes in the lungs are suspected, a detailed x-ray examination and consultation with an oncologist are prescribed. We should not forget that lung cancer is manifested by specific symptoms and if a person has a suspicion of oncology, he should definitely contact his local therapist.
Symptoms of the manifestation of the disease:
- Shortness of breath, which intensifies. This is due to the fact that the tumor occupies most of the lung and reduces the volume of the respiratory surface. With the growth of the neoplasm in the bronchi, part of the organ, and it happens that all the lungs, is turned off from the breath.
- Another symptom is pain, which is localized in the chest. She can bother the left, right, in the interscapular region, behind the sternum.
If pain occurs, you must consult a doctor to determine the cause of the symptom.
More than one million cases of this disease, which occupies a leading position in the total amount of malignant neoplasms, are recorded annually in the world. The main causes of lung cancer are: carcinogens, chronic diseases of the respiratory system, environmental conditions, occupational ailments. Carcinogens are chemicals that, when accumulated, can cause oncology. The main carcinogen is tobacco smoke, which contains benzopyrenes and nitrosemines, which accumulate in the body, increase the risk of developing the disease.
In this regard, it is important how many people smoke cigarettes per day and the duration of smoking itself. Complete abandonment of the habit over time reduces the risk of developing lung cancer. The environmental situation affects the increase in morbidity, because large particles of dust cannot leave the body on their own. The genetic predisposition is also important for this ailment - the presence of relatives with a confirmed diagnosis immediately indicates that the person is at risk and he needs to constantly undergo preventive examinations. The clinical symptoms of this disease depend on the location of the tumor, as well as on the stage of oncology. By localization, lung cancer is central and peripheral.
Central
The clinic for central lung cancer is as follows. It develops in large bronchi and manifests itself early enough. The patient may feel unwell, he develops an unproductive cough, and his body weight decreases. With the progression of the disease, the symptoms become brighter: the cough intensifies, then sputum appears, which can be either colorless or with streaks of blood, hoarseness in the voice, chest pain.
Peripheral
According to the clinic of peripheral lung cancer, in the initial stages it can be completely asymptomatic, so it can easily be confused with other pulmonary diseases. For the timely detection of oncology, it is necessary to regularly undergo a screening study.
Diagnostics
Methods for detecting lung cancer can be divided into two groups: laboratory and instrumental. Timely diagnosis is very important, since oncology can be confused with other pulmonary diseases in the early stages.
Instrumental methods
If you suspect a disease and a clinic of lung cancer in men and women, the first thing you need to do is an X-ray study, which in 80% of cases allows you to visualize the localization of the tumor process.
To clarify the size of the neoplasm, computed tomography is used. In developed countries, this diagnostic method has long replaced even X-ray examination and can be used as a screening method.
If lung cancer is suspected, bronchoscopy is also prescribed. It allows you to visualize the tumor process, as well as to make tissue sampling for morphological studies.
If it is impossible to conduct bronchoscopy, a puncture is prescribed - a puncture of the chest under the control of computed tomography to collect material for morphological examination, that is, for a biopsy.
PET CT (positron emission computed tomography) is a specific method for studying human internal organs. During the diagnosis, the patient is administered intravenously radioactive drugs based on glucose. The latter accumulates in tumor cells, which allows visualization of tumors even up to 1 centimeter.
Laboratory methods
If we talk about laboratory methods, then the gold standard for the diagnosis of any tumor process is a biopsy. After obtaining materials for research, it is studied using genetic tests and immunohistochemistry. This method allows you to individually select according to the genetic structure of the tumor. One of the most modern methods of laboratory diagnosis of cancer processes is the STS method.
To conduct this study, only ten milliliters of human blood is needed. The principle of STS is that tumor cells are constantly in the bloodstream and can be determined using special antibodies. CTC can detect a single tumor cell in billions of healthy blood cells. Also, this method allows you to more effectively approach individual cancer treatment programs.
Types of cancer
Mortality from malignant neoplasms in the lungs exceeds 85-90%. The following types of lung cancer are distinguished by histological classification:
- small cell - about 20% of cases of the disease;
- large-cell - about 80%.
Is it worth it to remove part of the organ?
It is worth knowing the clinical recommendations for lung cancer, which will tell you whether to remove part of the organ.
The lung is a very large organ, the tumor develops slowly and until the bronchus pinches and enters the pleura, patients do not feel anything. There is a conventional method for operating the lungs with intercostal opening of the chest and a modern one using a video camera. The latter also requires opening the chest, especially when removing the pulmonary lobe, which in an adult, even without air, reaches the size of a grapefruit.
Partial or complete organ removal is an extensive and risky operation that can cause serious complications, which is why it is performed with full monitoring of the patient. Upon completion of the surgery and awakening from anesthesia, the patient is transferred to the intensive care unit for one day to resume spontaneous breathing. Then for about a week he is placed in surgery. The first days after surgery, the person is connected to the drainage tubes and catheter. After discharge, patients are advised to take regular walks in the fresh air.
Stages
In the clinical picture of lung cancer, it is determined in 4 stages:
- 1 - a tumor of small or small size;
- 2 and 3 - the neoplasm has spread to nearby areas;
- 4 - the tumor metastasized to other parts of the body.
If oncology spreads to other parts of the body, the cancer is called secondary or metastatic.
Clinical groups
All patients who suffer from cancer are divided into 4 clinical groups of lung cancer:
- 1 group. This includes patients whose clinical picture is unclear, who have only suspected cancer. Within 10 days, these patients undergo a detailed examination.
- Group 2 - these are patients with malignant tumors that can be completely cured after the application of modern methods of therapy.
- Group 3 - these are patients who underwent radical treatment, and they have no signs of relapse.
- Group 4 - these are patients with tumors, when radical treatment is impossible, they need palliative care - an approach that can improve the patient's quality of life in dangerous diseases that can be fatal.