Lung Cancer Research Papers Examples

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In the present times, cancer is undoubtedly one of the most dreadful diseases, and the number of people affected by it can be seen to be increasing with every passing day. The diseases in one way or the other are affecting people from all over the world. Several stages of this particular type of cancer are mainly known as stage 1, 2, 3 and 4. There are many other kinds of cancer, which range from breast cancer to prostate cancer, kidney cancer, testis cancer, cervix cancer, leukemia as well as many more.
There is neither version nor any form of cancer that a person can afford to take lightly. The reason of this is that cancers of various kinds are responsible for most deaths world over than from any other such disease. Sometimes the attacks are so silent and covert that a patient ill with cancer gets to know of the ailment at almost the last stage. No less than thousands die each year, and these are just reported and treated ones with equally many people dying uncounted.
According to many sites in the USA, lung cancer is the second most common kind of cancer, without a doubt. This cancer can affect about one in five men and one in nine women, and that just makes everything worse. In the United States alone, cancer, in its various forms is the disease that is fatal of all (Dela Cruz, 2011). Hospitals provide that they have dealt with more cases of cancer than any other such disease. In addition, despite the fact that it seems quite uncommon, it actually is usual in all parts of the world.
A lot of research is currently being done regarding this cancer in order to find various ways of preventing or curing it. The incidence of lung cancer has decreased overall in different parts of the world, but this has not been entirely true for women.
Many surveys conducted throughout the recent years reveal that while men are currently not being as affected by lung cancer, women can be seen to be heavily affected by it in many parts of the globe. This has caused much worry as well as awareness within people who can now be seen to be getting all the information they need regarding lung cancer and how it can be treated the way it needs to be.
While comparing lung cancer statistics within women from the 1040’s as well as 1050’s, most reports and surveys show only seven to eight women having the diseases out of a total of 100,000 (Ridge, 2013).
When these numbers are compared with the current situation, this cancer affects more than forty women these days from the total of 100,000. Surveys conducted by many high ends and prestigious universities have revealed how everything about the immediate increase of lung cancer in women can be directly linked to smoking.
The number of women who smoke all over the world has drastically increased from the 1940’s until now; therefore, this cancer has also increased immensely, as a result. The debate regarding smoking causing lung cancer has been going around for quite a while now but, after all, the important evidence being collected; it is safe to say that smoking is one of the most major causes of this cancer in women in the present times (Siegel, 2012).
Many books have been written, studies have been conducted as well as surveys have been going on in order to prove how the reduction of smoking really does help in the process of preventing the risk of lung cancer in women as well as men, for that matter. The reason for getting the diseases through smoking cigarettes is that they contain countless chemicals, which can deteriorate the condition of the lungs over a long period, hence, causing this cancer eventually.
Many experts have pointed out the fact that the more cigarettes people smoke on a daily basis, the closer they are likely to get to have lung cancer. As terrifying a thought as it is, there is no guarantee of this happening. However, one must always try to stay on the safe side since diseases can always arrive suddenly.
There was raised an argument against cigarette being involved in the making of cancerous cells in the human body as there was ample evidence that nonsmokers also get sick with lung cancer and in serious numbers too. It was then uncovered that passive smoke is equally responsible for causing lung cancer than is direct smoke.
In addition, although it has not surfaced much this finding that cigarette smoking is this fatal, it is still covertly appreciated. For this very reason, it is observable now a day that cigarette advertisements are not as common as they used to.
When it comes to the important topic of discussing cancer prevalence, the number of recent survivors who have had been diagnosed with this cancer recently have been stated on the top websites that feature cancer prevalence of men and women within the US. It all boils down to 196,580 lung cancer patients who were males and 233,510 patients who were females. Both of these amounts of people can be rounded off to about 3%, which is a lot these days, and this only seems to be increasing.
However, one thing common regarding the diagnosis of these individuals who had previously survived lung cancer is that more than half of these individuals were either of seventy years of age or more.
On the other hand, a good amount of these cancer survivors had also been diagnosed with the diseases for many years, generally about four to five years. Moreover, these amounts of people include individuals who were diagnosed with cancer a while ago as well as the people who have been diagnosed recently.
Hence, the lists are accurate in terms of cancer prevalence. One thing that people must be aware of is the fact that people suffering from lung cancer are more likely to have less time in comparison with people who have other, mild kinds of cancers. This cancer is the kind that tends to progress very easily and rapidly, giving the doctors less time to try and treat the patient in order to see which treatment suits them best in the whole process.
Therefore, the statement that more people these days are living with other types of cancers in comparison with the ones who have been diagnosed with lung cancer is absolutely true. There are generally two types of this cancer, which mainly include small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. The treatment for both SCLC and NSCLC are both different and tend to vary from person to person. Since this cancer is the type, which tends to grow immediately in the form of a tumor, surgery is sometimes the most essential option.
Every year in the USA, as well as UK, , more than 41,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer and it is slowly becoming one of the most serious types of cancers that exist these days. When it comes to assessing lung cancer, there are many different symptoms that individuals need to check before they are sure about the diseases they are facing.
Symptoms of lung cancer include breathlessness, fierce coughing, weight loss, exhaustion, bloody cough, painful breathing and coughing as well. Upon countering any of these symptoms, one must immediately set up a meeting with a doctor in order to find the underlying cause of the health issue.
Most of the times, it eventually does lead to lung cancer as the severity of the disease is what makes people cough blood in the first place. Assessing the diseases is important in order to prevent it from spreading so rapidly, in the end. However, when it comes to having a look at the statistics, only about 15% of people are diagnosed with this cancer in the early stage.
This is somewhat quite a less number and due to it, many individuals tend to face deteriorated condition in the future. Upon being assessed and diagnosed with lung cancer so early, it gets much easy for the doctors to treat the condition, and the chances of survival are maximized.
Surgical treatment also works best when the cancer is caught off early in its first stage. Once it is diagnosed early, surgical treatment also tends to work appropriately and after then onwards, smooth and effective treatment can take place for as long as it has to. There are many ways through which doctors assess this cancer and one of the most contributing factors includes smoking.
More than half of the times, smoking it is what causes this type of cancer and during the assessment; doctors usually are known to ask their patients regarding their smoking history. This is what confirms the suspicions and eventually the appropriate treatment must be started in order to treat the condition. Doctors who have been treating lung cancer for a long time have revealed that a person who has been smoking for more than 10 years has about fifty times more chances of getting lung cancer.
Even though this is not true in many cases, it is in the majority of them, which is precisely why people must always try to quit smoking as much as possible. However, many people develop this cancer without smoking. This is rather not as common, but it has been eventually increasing since the past couple of years.
The diseases can be developed through other lung diseases as well as being in a polluted environment, which also contains harmful toxins for way too long. These assessments have been made by most doctors with many years of experience in the field of researching lung cancer and all of its treatments as well.

Diagnosis of Lung Cancer

If done at the right time, diagnosis of lung cancer can save a life. This is so because as the cancer goes on to mature, it keeps on becoming harder to treat until at the final stage it becomes untreatable. Diagnosing the disease is something that every doctor does according to the kind of situation his/her patient is in. Each person gets their own diagnosis and in order to get it done, one must visit their doctor soon. This is to be done right after a person begins to feel and experience most of the symptoms of lung cancer.
There are many factors which are taken into thorough consideration before diagnosing this condition and most of which are determined by the team of specialists who are handling a patient. It solely depends on the symptoms experienced by the patient, the patient’s previous medical history as well as all the results of one’s physical exam that has been conducted by the doctor (Chen, 2012).
One of the most common and widely used tests for finding out this particular cancer is the imaging test. This test reveals an array of pictures taken of the human body. Through this, doctors can find how the lung cancer has developed so far and how much it is going to spread later on.
On the other hand, this test also allows doctors to see if the treatment being given to patients with this cancer has been working or not. In the case of positive results, these tests come in handy mostly and it even enables doctors to see if the treatment provided to the patient is working or not in the first place (Zhou, 2011).
Many tests are conducted in order to diagnose the cancer, and the most important ones involve CT scan, PET scan as well as a bone scan. In order to check all the activity near and in the lungs, the fluid omitted through them as well as the lung tissues are mostly tested by the doctors who are looking for cancer development in this area. For this purpose, they need to extract cells from the human body for studying them in a much better and precise way. Studying the very cells under the microscope is how medical experts can see if they are cancerous or not.
Many tests for this purpose are carried out, and they include endobronchial ultrasound, thoracentesis, sputum cytology, thoracoscopy, endoscopic esophageal ultrasound, bronchoscopy, fine needle biopsy and many more. Since more and more people these days are not able to be diagnosed in the early stages of this cancer; a lot of different new tests are being created for the convenience of patients of this disease.
The tests for determining lung cancer at a much early stage will eventually increase the chances of better treatment, which is more likely lead to survival, in the end. On the other hand, many researchers are currently trying to create tests, which also can make a massive difference in perceiving early screening and diagnosis of lung cancer in the first place. Diagnosis for current and former smokers are rather different but in both cases; it is very necessary for contacting a doctor at the earliest convenience for the purpose of figuring one the health problem as early as possible.
During diagnosis, another thing that must be taken into thorough consideration is the type of lung cancer one id experiencing, and doctors can only find that out by running the above-mentioned tests.
Tumor testing as well as the screening are two very important topics in the entire debate of lung cancer diagnosis and in order to see the role these play in curing the diseases later on, one must definitely try to study them in detail beforehand. Staging is another part of the diagnosis process, which reveals how much of the cancer has spread in the human body and, in this case, the lungs (Cappuzzo, 2010).

Treatment of Lung Cancer

Since there are only two major types of lung cancer, mainly known as small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, one must be aware of the appropriate treatment method that are currently being used by doctors from all over the globe.
Chemotherapy is commonly used for treating small cell lung cancer whereas; non-small cell lung cancer is treated with radiotherapy, chemotherapy and sometimes a combination of both of these. Moreover, it is also treated surgically a lot of times and in the case of the small cell lung cancer, that does not happen.
Surgical options in the treatment of the small cell cancer are only usable when the cancer has not spread inside the lungs and the other organs of the body, for that matter (Rosell, 2012). Because if that happens, the operation becomes very risky as a minor mistake by the surgeon can prove fatal with a vital organ failing resultantly.
Surgery in the non-small cell cancer can be done, but the stage of the cancer must really be considered thoroughly before going ahead with it. Hence, chemotherapy is undoubtedly the most viable and the most commonly used treatment for this type of lung cancer. Treatment for this sort of cancer always depends on many factors and these include the wishes of the patients, patient’s health, the location of the cancer within the lungs, the type of lung cancer a patient has, results of blood tests and various scans and the stage of the lung cancer.
Surgeons must have the consent of patients before conducting a full fledge surgery against lung cancer. In most cases, patients are required to fill out a brief form, signing the letter of approval saying that they are ready to bear the consequences that can even be fatal if the surgery does not end up successful. And it has been seen a lot of times that patients do not hesitate in signing up for it as the pain they go through is so intense, taking a chance with their life begins to seem fair to them.
Many patients are going to find others with lung cancer receiving different treatment, and that can be justified by the above-mentioned factors. The treatments for this kind of cancer, therefore, are mainly chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. It is important for everyone to be aware of the fact that all of these treatments can be used together or alone as well, which completely depends on the condition of the patient receiving these treatments.
Overall, the doctors handling the case of any patient are most likely to plan the best possible treatment and the kind, which suits the patient’s condition as well. However, the patients with non-small cells cancer within the second or more advanced stage than that can also receive biological therapy, which is an advanced form of therapy usually used for patients who are in the advanced stages of lung cancer.
Patients who are in the early stages of cancer are most commonly treated with chemotherapy, and when they pass the early stage then they are provided with radiotherapy. After having gone through the former, very few patients are shifted to the later for two reasons. First is that the patients recover from the disease, and there remains no need to kick the treatment up a notch. Second is that, if patients do not recover then it is almost inevitable that their bodies have grown so weak that they cannot stand the next treatment.

Conclusion

Treatment of cancer is risky if done at later stages of the ailment but completely effective if do early. A wide range of different treatment options is available for a person who has lung cancer in the present times. While these may as well be quite different from each other at times, their main purpose is to cure one disease only.
Diagnosis again needs to be done at the very early stages of the ailment since with the passage of time the disease roots in deep and becomes incurable.
All of the treatments mentioned are directed towards the lungs for people who have lungs cancer and so far, most of these treatments seem to work miracles in many cases of diagnosed patients from all over the world these days. The treatments for stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 of lung cancer are all different from each other.

References

Chen, X., Hu, Z., Wang, W., Ba, Y., Ma, L., Zhang, C., & Zhang, C. Y. (2012). Identification of ten serum microRNAs from a genome‐wide serum microRNA expression profile as novel noninvasive biomarkers for nonsmall cell lung cancer diagnosis. International Journal of Cancer, 130(7), 1620- 1628.