Lung Cancers – Causes, Types and Symptoms
The lung cancer begins habitually forming in the middle of fifty or sixty. Tobacco addiction is responsible from 80 % to 90 % of cases. The Canadian Society of the cancer envisages that there will be 24 100 new cases in 2010 in the country: 12 900 men and 11 200 women.
Causes
* Tobacco addiction.
* Exhibition in secondary smoke.
* Exhibition in present cancerogenic particles in air, as those coming from some asbestos, from some arsenic, from the radon or from the pollutants of air (monoxide of carbon, ozone, etc).
Types
There are 2 types of lung cancer. They grow and spread in different ways in the body.
*Small cell lung cancer (SCLC). It is about the most dangerous form. About 20 % of cases come under this form. At the time of diagnosis, risk that the cancer already scatters in the body elsewhere is high. It grows fast and it is often impossible to treat it by means of surgery. They use rather the chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
* Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This form, which represents about 80 % of cases, is treated more easily than the first one. It develops more slowly.
Symptoms
Sometimes, no symptom is detectable. The most common symptoms are the following. However, other problems of health can also be at the origin of these symptoms.
* Cough which intensifies or that does not disappear (it is necessary to be attentive to a cough of the smoker which deteriorates).
* Constant pain in the thorax, which becomes more marked when they cough or breathe profoundly.
* Wheezing.
* Shortness of breath.
* Spits of blood.
* Voice made hoarse for more than 3 or 4 weeks.
* Depending on circumstances: bronchitis or pneumonias with repetition, weight loss,chronic fatigue, headaches…