Understanding Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

The lungs have two main functions, namely the spread of oxygen into the blood when breathed in and disposing of carbon dioxide exhaled. Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer that occur. Lung cancer originating from other cancer spread are called secondary lung cancer. On this page, the type of cancer that is discussed is of primary lung cancer, which is originated from the lung itself.

Lung cancer is one type of cancer, the most preventable. There are at least 80-90 percent of cases of lung cancer associated with merokok.Pada habits early stage, there are no signs or symptoms of lung cancer are unclear. But then symptoms like cough ongoing basis to experience coughing up blood, always feel out of breath, fatigue without reason, and weight loss will arise.

Type of Lung Cancer Existing
There are two types of primary lung cancer based on the type of cell, that cell lung cancer (small-cell lung cancer / SCLC) lung cancer and non-small cell (non-small-cell lung cancer / NSCLC). Lung cancer non-small cell potentially four times more common than lung cancer small cell.

Lung cancer small cell (SCLC) usually only affects heavy smokers and spread faster than lung cancer non-small cell (NSCLC).

People at Risk of Lung Cancer
Smoking can be regarded as the main cause of lung cancer. People who are most at risk of developing lung cancer are current smokers. Approximately 80-90 percent of lung cancer associated with smoking. Even so, that does not mean every perokokakan lung cancer. In addition, people who do not smoke are also likely to develop cancer of the lungs, although a lower amount.

Besides cigarettes, some of the causes of lung cancer other than inhaling arsenic, radiation and air pollution. Lung cancer is also more common in people who are elderly.

Treatment of Lung Cancer
Treatment of lung cancer depends on the type of cancer. The level of spread of the cancer and the health condition of the patient also has an effect on treatment methods and treatment used.

Cancer surgery can be done if the cancer cells have not spread widely to other parts of the body. If the health condition does not allow it to do surgical removal, the other way of handling that can be applied. The process of destruction of cancer cells by radiotherapy can be executed.

Lung cancer usually does not cause symptoms before the cancer cells spread to large parts of the lungs or other body parts. Healing depends on the spread of cancer and cancer diagnosis when known. The earlier the diagnosis is made, the chances for successful treatment are also becoming more

Diagnosis of Lung Cancer
For those of you who experience symptoms of lung cancer such as ongoing cough, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, and chest pain should immediately see a doctor.

Early detection of cancer can improve the success of treatment. Here are some tests that can be performed to confirm the diagnosis of cancer.

• Imaging tests. The first diagnosis for lung cancer usually use X-ray. Imaging X-ray of the lungs may show existing tumors. If the X-ray is suspected lung cancer, further tests need to be done to be sure. CT scans can show an abnormally small that can not be seen by X-ray. By utilizing a CT scan, clearer imaging and detail can be obtained. PET-CT scans can show the location of the cancer cells are active. Imaging is usually performed if the results of the CT scan showed that there were cancer cells at an early stage.
• Sputum. Sputum we spend time cough can be examined in the laboratory with a microscope. Sometimes these tests can be used to see if there are cancer cells in the lungs.
• A biopsy or tissue sampling lungs. This procedure is performed after imaging tests and shows that there are cancer cells in the chest. The doctor will take a sample of cells from the tissue in the lungs.

Stage Lung Cancer

• Stage 1. Cancer is still in the lung and has not spread to the lymph nodes in the vicinity. Tumor size at this stage is still under 5 cm.
• Stage 2. Tumor size of anything that has spread to other parts like the lymph nodes, chest, diaphragm, or the lining that encloses the lungs. Moreover, cancer is also classified as stage 2 if it was larger than 5 cm.
• Stage 3. At this stage, there are cancer cells that have spread to lymph nodes that are far away from the lungs or the tumor in the lung is already very large and invade another organ near the lungs.
• Stage 4. The cancer had already spread to the lungs or other organs side far from the lungs such as the brain and liver, or fluid containing cancer cells may have already appeared around the heart or lungs.

Symptoms of Lung Cancer

In the early stages, lung cancer does not cause any symptoms. Symptoms will only appear when the cancer development has reached a certain stage. The following are the main symptoms to be experienced by patients with lung cancer. See your doctor or go to a clinic to confirm the diagnosis of symptoms experienced.

• Cough ongoing and getting worse, until finally experienced coughing up blood.
• Experience shortness of breath and chest pain.
• Experiencing fatigue without reason.
• Swelling of the face or neck.
• Headache.
• Pain in the bones, could be on the shoulder, arm or hand.
• Body weight decreased.
• Loss of appetite.
• Voice becomes hoarse.
• Difficulty swallowing or pain when swallowing something.
• Changes to the shape of the fingers, the fingertips become convex.

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