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Lung cancer forms in the tissues of the lung, usually in the cells lining the air passages. It is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women.
There are two main types, which grow differently and are treated differently:
- non-small cell lung cancer — the more common type;
- small cell lung cancer.
Risk factors
Anyone can get lung cancer, but some things raise the risk:
- Smoking — the most important risk factor. Smoking tobacco causes about 9 in 10 lung cancers in men and about 8 in 10 in women. The risk rises with the number of years you smoke and the number of cigarettes a day, and is higher still if you smoke heavily and drink alcohol every day or take beta carotene supplements. Quitting lowers your risk compared with continuing to smoke, though it stays higher than for people who never smoked.
- Secondhand smoke — the mix of smoke from a burning cigarette and smoke breathed out by a smoker. It carries the same cancer-causing agents, in smaller amounts.
- Family history of lung cancer.
- Workplace exposure to asbestos, arsenic, chromium, beryllium, nickel, soot or tar.
- Radiation, from radiation therapy to the breast or chest, radon in the home or workplace, or certain imaging tests such as CT scans.
- HIV infection — though people with HIV also smoke more, so it isn't clear whether the higher risk comes from HIV or from smoking.
- Air pollution — living where it is higher raises the risk.
Symptoms
Lung cancer may cause no signs until it is advanced, and it is sometimes found on a chest x-ray taken for something else. Symptoms can include:
- chest pain or discomfort;
- a cough that doesn't go away or gets worse;
- coughing up blood;
- trouble breathing, or wheezing;
- hoarseness;
- loss of appetite and unexplained weight loss;
- extreme tiredness;
- trouble swallowing;
- swelling in the face or in the veins of the neck.
Diagnosis and staging
Your provider will ask about your symptoms and family history, examine you, and may order a chest x-ray or CT scan, blood and sputum tests, and a biopsy of the lung. If you have lung cancer, further tests show whether it has spread through the lungs, lymph nodes or elsewhere — its stage. The type and stage guide treatment. For small cell lung cancer, genetic testing may look for gene changes (variants) in the cancer cells that can help guide treatment.
Treatment
For most people, current treatments do not cure lung cancer. Treatment depends on the type, how far it has spread, your overall health and other factors, and often combines more than one approach.
| Small cell lung cancer | Non-small cell lung cancer |
|---|---|
| surgery | surgery |
| chemotherapy | chemotherapy |
| radiation therapy | radiation therapy |
| immunotherapy | immunotherapy |
| laser therapy | laser therapy |
| endoscopic stent placement, to open an airway blocked by abnormal tissue | targeted therapy, which attacks specific cancer cells with less harm to normal ones |
| photodynamic therapy — a medicine activated by laser light to kill cancer cells | |
| cryosurgery, which freezes and destroys abnormal tissue | |
| electrocautery, which destroys tissue with a probe or needle heated by electric current |
Prevention
Avoiding the risk factors may help prevent lung cancer:
- Quit smoking — and if you don't smoke, don't start.
- Reduce your exposure to hazardous substances at work.
- Reduce your exposure to radon. A radon test, done with a kit you buy or by a professional, shows whether your home has high levels.
Sources
Based on "Lung Cancer," MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, drawing on the National Cancer Institute (NIH); a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Лицензия: CC0 1.0 (общественное достояние) · По материалам medlineplus.gov
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