Lung cancer marks the number one cancer killer in the world. It kills more than colon cancer, breast and prostate cancer combined. Unfortunately, all you need in order to get lung cancer are lungs. There is a highest risk for developing lung cancer, those are individuals with heavy tobacco exposure. However, 20 percent of lung cancer is caused by non-tobacco exposure and that includes the environment and genetics.
Some symptoms of lung cancer are often times generic or non-specific. That includes wheezing, coughing up blood, breathing problems, and weight loss. Unfortunately, most patients who are diagnosed with lung cancer don’t carry warning signs or symptoms. According to dentists in Brooklyn New York, some patients usually lives with lung cancer their whole entire life without having the obvious physical changes in their body and may live with this deadly disease for over twenty years before it becomes apparent. There are millions of people who are eligible for lung cancer. Lung cancer is majorly a disease of the elderly with the most common age at diagnosis being seventy years. Almost 70 percent people who are diagnosed with lung cancer are over sixty-five years of age while 3 percent of lung cancer occur in people under age forty-five.
Your chosen doctor will order a number of tests if there is any reason to think that you have a lung cancer., imaging tests such as x-ray or CT scan to see if there is abnormal mass that can be found in your lungs. Doctors also go through sputum cytology to check for cancer cell in phlegm for people who had produced it with cough. Biopsy is also an option where a small sample of tissues removed for laboratory testing. The stages of cancer are determined based on how far the cancer has spread, thus, helps your doctor to identify the best treatment option for you.
The best treatment option tests such as CT scan and x-ray, and bone scan can be used to determine your cancer stage.
- Stage 1 – cancer is confined to the lungs
- Stage 2 – cancer is both in the lungs and lymph nodes
- Stage 3 – cancer affects the lymph nodes of the chest
- Stage 4 – cancer has affected your lungs and its surrounding areas or to distant organs such as the liver.
Diagnosis of lung cancer does not mean an absence of hope. There are many treatments or help that can be provided by your healthcare professional that really works with you and your families to combat lung cancer and to bring you to the life that you want.