Lung Cancer

Picture 1: A chest CT, i.e. a scan of lungs, shows a mass in right lung.

Picture 2: A bronchoscopy, which takes picture and makes biopsy of bronchi of lungs, shows lesions that turn out lung cancer.

I've recently learned that two of my old classmates are inflicted with lung cancer. One friend already died; the other is fighting the disease. My heart goes out to them.

My other classmates, who are knowledgeable about this malignancy and some of them live outside the U.S., have come up with different opinions as to treatment and prevention of the disease. I've researched reliable sources of North-American medical literature and I now post a summary here.

• Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death worldwide, causing about 1.2 million deaths a year.





• Risk factors of this disease are cigarette smoking, radiation therapy for other illness such as breast cancer, and environmental toxins such as asbestos. Smoking is the biggest risk, estimated to account for about 90 percent of all lung cancers.





• WHO (World Health Organization) classification is as follows: Adenocarcinoma 38%, Squamous cell carcinoma 20%, Small cell carcinoma 13%, Large cell carcinoma 5%, and other types of lung cancer 24%.





• At late stages of lung cancer, cancer cells may spread to other organs. The most frequent sites are liver, bones, brain.





• Lung cancer may cause other problems such as swelling of brain, blood clots, paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes. Paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes are a group of brain damages that cause blindness, loss of sensation in body, weak muscles of eyes and hips, inability to breathe.





• Patients with limited-stage disease live on average 15-20 months. About 10% of them can live 5 years.





• Patients with extended-stage disease live on average 8-13 months. About 1% of them can live 5 years.





• Patients with small cell lung cancer need chemotherapy. Lung radiation therapy is for those with limited disease. Some of patients undergo brain irradiation to decrease brain metastases so that they can live longer.