Health Checks: Lung Cancer
Checks for lung cancer should take place as early as possible after symptoms appear. Continue Reading
Lung Cancer: Prevention & Management
The best way to prevent lung cancer is to give up smoking – or never begin in the first place. Over 95 per cent of lung cancer cases are directly linked to cigarette smoking. There is no safe cigarette and no safe level of consumption!
Lung Cancer: Causes & Diagnosis
Lung cancer was the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australian males in 2001 – and the most deadly, claiming 4,657 lives.
Contents
Incidence
Between 1991 and 2001, the incidence and mortality of lung cancer among males fell by an average of 2.1 per cent per year. These declining rates are attributed to decreased tobacco smoking among men 10 to 20 years earlier, and represent the lowest incidence rate (61.4 new cases per 100,000 people) recorded since national data collection began in 1982.
Most men that develop lung cancer die of the disease. Over 95 per cent of lung cancers are directly due to exposure to cigarette smoke.
Given the long lag time between exposure to cigarette smoke and development of lung cancer, lung cancer is expected to be a health problem for at least 20 years after every person in Australia stops smoking!
Causes
Lung cancer is largely caused by cigarette smoking. Less common causes include:
- Passive exposure to cigarette smoke (Second hand cigarette smoke contains the same components as smoke tobacco smoke inhaled directly – but in a lower concentration.)
- Advancing age
- Asbestos exposure
- Workplace exposure to materials such as ionising radiation among uranium and hard rock miners; coal tars; petroleum; chromates; nickel; arsenic; and mustard gas.
- Air pollution
- Lung scarring (lung cancer can develop in an areas scarred by diseases such as tuberculosis)
- Inadequate consumption of fruit and vegetables.
Symptoms and diagnosis
Common symptoms of lung cancer include:
- Cough
- Coughing up blood
- Wheezing
- Laboured breathing or shortness of breath
- Chest pain
- Bone pain
- Loss of appetite
- Loss of weight.
Lung cancer is ultimately diagnosed by testing of a biopsy sample taken from the tumour. Other tests useful for diagnosis, and determining the most suitable treatment method, may include:
- Chest X-ray
- CT scan (detailed scan of the lungs and chest)
- Sputum cytology (testing fluid produced in the lungs)
- Bronchoscopy (a camera in a fine tube, inserted into the lungs through the nose or mouth)
- Transthoracic needle aspirate (a fine needle is used to take a sample from the tumour for testing)
- Pulmonary function tests (analysis of the strength and capacity of the lungs to cope with surgery or radiation treatment)
- Positron Emission Tomography (PET) – the patient is injected with a substance that appears clearly on X-rays and shows where the tumour has spread.
