My Lung Cancer Article Guide - lung cancer article information
Lung Cancer Article
The body is made up of many types of cells. To keep the body healthy and functioning properly throughout a person's life cells constantly grow, divide, and produce more cells as needed in a systematic and controlled manner. Usually normal cell growth occurs, so worn out tissues can be replaced and wounds repaired. However, sometimes this process goes awry and cells start to grow out of control forming a mass called a tumor. Tumors can be either benign or malignant.
When abnormal cells in organs and tissues in the body grow out of control it is called cancer. Cancer cells grow and increase in prolific numbers over a period of time invading and destroying the tissue surrounding them. The cells can break up from a malignant tumor and enter the bloodstream or lymphatic system, which are the tissues and organs that produce, store, and carry white blood cells, which fight infection and other diseases. Metastasis is the process of how cancer spreads from the primary tumor to form a secondary tumor in other parts of the body.
Benign tumors are not cancerous. Cells in benign tumors do not spread to other parts of the body and are rarely a threat to life. Usually, benign tumors can be removed and for the most part they do not come back.
Lung cancer
Cilia are tiny hair-like substances, which normally catch and remove foreign particles inhaled into the lungs. Cilia are lacked in a cells cancerous state. Most lung cancer starts in the cells lining the main air passages, or bronchi. Mucous in the lungs which is usually cleared by bronchial cilia then becomes trapped, blocking air passages and causing respiratory problems.
The following are the principal cancers that affect the lungs. The first three types of cancer start in the areas more exposed to inhaled pollutants, which is the lining membrane of the airway.
Squamous cell cancer. The leading number of lung cancers, approximately 40%-45%. Small cell lung cancer. This accounts for 15%-20% of all lung cancers because it spreads rapidly from its characteristically central location. Large cell undifferentiated cancer. Seen in about 5%-10% of lung cancer cases. Adenocarcinoma. This type of cancer can occur in non-smokers. It usually occurs in outlying areas of the lung accounting for 25%-30% of all lung cancers. Bronchioloalvealar cancer. This cancer can also affect non-smokers. It accounts for fewer than 5% of the total number of lung cancer cases. It develops in even more remote areas of the lung. Other rare cancers make up less than 5% of the total number of lung cancer cases diagnosed.
In the western world, lung cancer accounts for the largest percentage of cancer deaths. Statistically proven many times over, cigarette smoking is directly responsible for most lung cancer cases.
Causes of lung cancer
It is important to understand how smoking affects and injures the lungs, as cigarette smoking is a major cause of lung cancer. Smoke inhalation damages the normal cleaning process by which the lung protects itself from injury.
The bronchi, the two main branches that lead to the lung, conduct inhaled air to the lung tissues that are lined with a coating of cells on which lies a defensive coating of mucus. The hair-like cilia on these cells continually flow in a regular rhythm to move mucus upwards from the lung to remove any inhaled particles, which may have become trapped in the process.
Smoke inhalation very quickly damages the proficiency of this cleaning mechanism. The cilia disappear and the coating they lie in thickens attempting to protect the fine underlying tissues from injury. The lung can no longer keep itself uncontaminated once this damage has occurred, and the cancer-producing agents in cigarette smoke remain trapped in the mucus on the surface lining of the airway. They then pass into the cells before being removed by coughing, which is the only cleansing mechanism remaining.
The very nature of the cells in the lungs slowly and increasingly alters until cancer develops once these chemicals and their by-products are within the body. Though some cancers begin in the trachea, bronchioles, or alveoli, most lung cancers start in the lining of the bronchi.
It is thought that lung cancer develops over a period of years with areas of pre-cancerous changes in the lungs, but these changes do not form a mass or tumor. Pre-cancerous changes cannot be seen on an x-ray and do not cause any symptoms, but as the cancer continues to grow it forms a tumor, which is then large enough to be seen on x-rays.
By analysing cells in the lining of the airways of smoke-damaged lungs these pre-cancerous changes can be exposed. Molecular abnormalities considered to be pre-cancerous have also been recognized in cells from people who are at high risk of developing lung cancer, and usually progress to true cancer.
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