Stop Smoking If You Don't Want To Suffer From Lung Cancer

Although smoking can cause many different physical ailments, one of the most serious diseases associated with tobacco use is lung cancer. Smoking causes 87 percent of all cases of lung cancer. The leading cause of cancer deaths in America, lung cancer costs more people their lives than prostate, colon, lymph, and breast cancer combined.

The risk of lung cancer increases the longer you smoke, and the more cigarettes you smoke regularly. However, if you quit smoking—even after many years—you can still greatly reduce your risk of lung cancer. Prevention of the disease is very important because lung cancer typically is not found until it has reached an advanced stage. The survival rate for lung cancer victims, although improving, is still below that of many other cancers.

The most common symptom of lung cancer is usually a cough. This cough is caused by a tumor blocking passage of air or irritating the airway lining. Other symptoms include coughing up blood, chest pain, a “smoker’s cough” that grows worse, repeated bouts of pneumonia or bronchitis, shortness of breath, fatigue, appetite and subsequent weight loss, or hoarseness lasting over two weeks. Sometimes, lung cancer spreads to other parts of the body (also called metastasizing), and may cause headaches or bone pain. 

Stop Smoking If You Don't Want To Suffer From Lung Cancer

Background

Human lungs are paired organs that occupy the majority of the chest cavity, located on either side of the heart. The left lung has two lobes and the right lung has three. The pleura, a thin membrane, cover the lungs. Likewise, airway and windpipe linings have surface cells (columnar epithelium) and glands that produce mucus and other fluids.

Air travels from the nose or mouth through the trachea, which separates into two bronchi that enter either lung. Within the lungs, the bronchi continue dividing into smaller tubules, the smallest of which is called the alveoli. Alveoli are grouped in clusters, or lobules, which are then grouped into lobes. An alveolus is surrounded by capillaries. Capillaries are part of the pulmonary blood vessels that connect the lungs to the heart. Blood flows through the capillaries, carbon dioxide is delivered into the alveoli, and oxygen is diffused in the bloodstream.

The columnar epithelium (airways and windpipe lining) in healthy lungs divide in an orderly, controlled manner. When a person has lung cancer, these cells continue to reproduce past the point when new cells are needed. Lung cancer may take years to develop, but lung tissue may start to change immediately after being exposed to carcinogens in cigarette smoke. Continued smoking means more exposure to carcinogens; normal cells become more damaged and may become cancerous. Because of the great reach of the lung’s cells throughout the body, cancerous cells may spread throughout the body (metastasize) more easily.

Continue reading Lung Cancer Causes and Types