Lung Cancer

What is Lung Cancer?

According to a recent study, lung cancer ranks as the fourth most common type of cancer among Indians. Furthermore, lung cancer mortality accounts for a substantial 8.9% of all cancer-related deaths. It is a type of cancer where the cancer starts in the lungs. Lung cancer can develop in a person who smokes and breathes in toxic chemicals. A vital component of our respiratory system are our lungs. Lung cells have a tendency to undergo changes, including the ability to grow or cease acting normally. These cells have the ability to develop into benign, non-cancerous tumours or malignant tumours, which can destroy the surrounding tissues and, in more advanced stages of the disease, spread to other parts of the body.

At Medica Superspecialty Hospital, lung cancer treatment goes beyond curing the disease. Additionally, it's about giving you lifetime postoperative comprehensive care.

We have the brightest minds on staff, with a combined 30+ years of experience. The most brilliant minds in surgical, medical, and radiation oncology are brought together by Asarfi Oncology Team, which has decades of experience and expertise in cutting-edge oncology, along with a full spectrum of upscale ancillary experts.

Types

Cancer can be classified into several types based on the type of lung cells from which it originated. These types include:

Lung Cancer with Small Cells

It is a fast-growing type of lung cancer that is typically brought on by smoking. Symptoms include cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, and bloody phlegm. Cancer is treated with surgery (for small tumours), chemotherapy, and occasionally radiation therapy in combination.

Large-Scale Lung Cancer

Both smokers and non-smokers may develop one of these two types of lung cancer. Symptoms include blood in the cough, shortness of breath, persistent coughing, and weight loss.Treatment options include radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery.

Adenocarcinoma

It begins and spreads from the glands lining your organs. Adenocarcinomas are common in the stomach, prostate, lung, pancreas, and colorectal regions.

Carcinoma of the Bronchi

One type of adenocarcinoma that is relatively uncommon is bronchioalveolar carcinoma (BAC) (lung cancer). Roughly 2.6–4.3 percent of lung cancers are caused by BAC. The alveoli, or tiny air sacs, in the outer regions of the lungs are the site of development for BAC, a non-small cell lung cancer subtype.

A Squamous Cell Tumour

Squamous cell lung carcinoma is the term for lung cancer that is not small cell (SCC). It is a slow-growing type of non-small cell lung cancer. Symptoms include blood in the cough, dyspnea, and persistent cough. One common course of treatment is surgery. If the cancer is aggressive or widespread, treatment with radiation or chemotherapy may be recommended.

Big Cell Cancer

There are several forms of non-small cell lung cancer, one of which is large cell lung carcinoma. Compared to other forms of lung cancer, lung cancer involving the lung's outer regions (LCLC) develops and spreads more quickly. The two most typical early indicators of LCLC are fatigue and shortness of breath.

Symptoms

Most people who are diagnosed with lung cancer exhibit a combination of recurrent and persistent symptoms, which can be used to diagnose the disease. Lung cancer's most typical early warning signs and symptoms include:

• Breathing difficulties
• Sputum Constant coughing
• Unexpected weight reduction
• Weary
• Deficiency
• recurring pneumonias in the chest
• accumulation of fluid around the chest
• chest ache
• Violent sputum

Causes

According to statistics, lung cancer is the most deadly type of cancer worldwide. It is also a serious concern in India, where the number of cases is alarmingly increasing annually. It is necessary to understand the underlying cause of this harmful mutation in order to take preventative measures against lung cancer.

• lung cancer Consuming tobacco
• Consuming tobacco
• lung cancer Air contamination
• Air contamination
• family history of lung cancer
• Ancestral History
• radiation treatment for lung cancer
• Radiation Exposure
• lung cancer Exposure at work
• Exposure at Work
• lung cancer Individual Background
• Individual Background

Compared to people in general who have never had lung cancer, those who have had the disease in the past are more likely to get it again. An additional risk of 1 to 2% per year is associated with non-small cell lung cancer, and an additional 6% per year is associated with small cell lung cancer.

Stages

Early cancer diagnosis and treatment greatly increases the likelihood of a successful outcome. The fact that patients rarely exhibit symptoms in the early stages of the disease makes lung cancers extremely difficult to diagnose.

Lung cancer that is not small cell has four stages:

• Stage I: There are no cancer cells outside of the lung; they are exclusively present in the lung.
• Stage II: Necroticles have proliferated throughout the lung and adjacent lymph nodes.
• Stage III: The lung and chest lymph nodes are affected by cancer in this stage. It then spreads to the side from which it originally came, and eventually it moves on to the lymph nodes above the collarbone or the opposite side of the chest.
• Stage IV: The cancer cells have metastasized to other organs, both lungs, and the region surrounding the lungs.

Diagnosis

When making a cancer diagnosis, physicians consider a wide range of additional factors. When making an accurate diagnosis, a number of factors are taken into account in addition to the patient's symptoms, including the patient's medical history, symptoms, and results from prior physical examinations.

To make an initial diagnosis, your physician or pulmonologist may ask you to inhale into a "spirometer." This apparatus gauges your intake and output of air. However, in order to make a thorough evaluation, you might be required to take the following exams:

• Imaging examinations : X-ray of the chest, CT scan, PET-CT Scanning,
• Additional techniques for diagnosing lung cancer include: Cytology of Sputum, bronchoscopy, autopsy, Mediastinoscopy, biopsy with a fine needle (FNAC)

Treatment

Depending on the type of lung cancer that has been diagnosed, there are differences in the treatment options. Treatment options for non-small cell lung cancer are numerous and comprise the following:

• Surgery: In the early stages of cancer, when the patient's condition can only be improved by removing the cancerous tissue, surgical options may be taken into consideration.
• Chemotherapy: The cancer has a very low chance of returning when chemotherapy is administered following the tumor's surgical removal. However, to achieve the intended result in advanced stages, chemotherapy is typically combined with targeted therapy or radiation therapy.
• Neoadjuvant Therapy: This modality is well-known for its ability to reduce the size of the tumour. This facilitates the surgical removal of the cancerous growth.
• Target therapy: By attaching to or obstructing particular proteins that arise on the surface of cancer cells, targeted therapy aims to specifically target cancer cells, preventing them from proliferating or dividing.
• Immunotherapy: This kind of cancer treatment stimulates the patient's immune system to fight the tumour cells in their body. This treatment is popular because it is known to have a tenth of the side effects of chemotherapy.

There are three primary treatment options for small cell lung cancer:

• Surgery is beneficial for a very small proportion of patients with limited stage small cell lung cancer. It also only functions in the absence of lymph node tumours.
• Chemotherapy and radiation: An essential part of any patient's treatment, chemotherapy is administered regardless of the cancer's stage. Patients in advanced stages receive chemotherapy plus radiation therapy.
• Preventive Radiation Therapy: Designed to stop cancer from spreading to the brain, preventive radiation therapy is primarily prescribed to patients whose lung cancer has responded well to chemotherapy. This is because small cell lung cancer has a tendency to spread to the brain.