The Major Cause Of Lung Cancer

Of all the cancers that afflict people in the US, lung cancer causes the maximum deaths. This statistic is applicable in the case of both men and women. If only people in the US cut down on smoking drastically, it would help largely reduce the number of lung cancer related deaths. Presently 90% of lung cancer related deaths in the US are due to smoking.

The frequency of cigarette smoking and the time for which the smoking continues has a direct impact on the risk of contracting lung cancer. You can largely reduce your chances of being afflicted with lung cancer if you quit smoking even when you have been smoking for many years. Being in an atmosphere of cigarette smoke for long or prolonged exposure to radon or asbestos increases your risk of lung cancer.

Lung cancer cannot be detected during the initial phase. This is because there are no detectable symptoms. It is only when the disease reaches an advanced stage that signs and symptoms appear. These include a hitherto not present cough that does not go away. Another symptom is a persistent fit of coughing known as a smoker's cough. It may also include coughing up small amounts of blood at times.

Other symptoms may include wheezing, hoarseness of voice, shortness of breath, and even pain in the chest.

Active or passive smoking is the main cause of lung cancer. However, it has surprisingly been observed that lung cancer has also been found in people who never once smoked in their lives. In such cases, no clearly identifiable cause of lung cancer could be found.

Smoking causes lung cancer by damaging the cells that form the lining of the lungs. Cigarette smoke contains carcinogens. These are nothing but cancer causing substances. These substances cause immediate changes in the tissues of the lungs.

The body's immune defence mechanism is able to repair the damage to lung tissues in the initial phase. However as the already damaged lung tissues come into contact with cigarette smoke on a continuous basis, severe changes occur in the lung tissues. In this stage even the body's immune defense system fails to repair the damage. It is then that cancerous changes start appearing in these tissues.

Soon these changes spread to other parts of the body. This spread is easily facilitated by the presence of blood and lymph vessels in the lungs. The blood and lymph in the vessels move from the lungs to many other parts of the body to which these vessels are connected. They carry along cancerous cells. These in turn then attack organs and tissues at many other sites of the body and convert normal functional cells into cancerous ones.

Secondary lung cancer is lung cancer that is caused mostly due to the spread of primary oral cancer to the lungs. Its causes are those of oral cancer.

Lung Cancer