Lung Cancer Answers Website Launches
Lung Cancer Answers is an informative new website offering tips not only on lung cancer symptoms and diagnosis, but also on dealing with lung cancer once diagnosed, and on resources for lung cancer sufferers and their families.
The rising tide of lung cancer cases, both worldwide and in the United States, is attributable to the legacy from smoking, chemical exposure, and air pollution from decades past. No other form of cancer causes so many deaths – over 150,000 in the U.S. alone every year.
Two of the primary risk factors in lung cancer are smoking and exposure to asbestos. Separately, they account for an increase in the incidence of the disease of about five or 10 times average. Together, however, they increase the risk of developing lung cancer by up to 100 times.
These risk factors are increased by the length and intensity of the exposure, the amount of time (in the case of asbestos) since exposure, and the type and size of asbestos fibers encountered, with longer fibers like those in chrysotile asbestos implicated in higher rates of lung cancer.
Besides active and passive smoke inhalation, and asbestos, another significant factor in developing lung cancer is radon. Radon, a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas resulting from the radioactive decay of earth elements, is emitted naturally from soils and often found in significant quantities in basements. Rates vary from state to state, but scientists have concluded that radon accounts for about 15,000 to 22,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the U.S., second only to cigarette smoking.
For those concerned with radon levels in the basements or first floors of their homes, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends testing, with remediation directed at homes where radon levels exceed 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) of air.
Some other chemicals are significant causes of lung cancer, including Agent Orange, depleted uranium, and beryllium. The first was an herbicide used during the Vietnam War to destroy vegetation in order to expose enemy combatants. The second is often encountered by uranium miners, and secondarily by U.S. military, since it is often weaponized.
Beryllium is commonly encountered by miners as residual dust from extracting other minerals, or in manufacturing, where it is alloyed with copper to create a light but durable metal used in space capsules, satellites and other aerospace venues.
Besides the small-cell type, lung cancer also occurs as an adenocarcinoma, which accounts for about 40 percent of lung cancers (making it the single most common type of lung tumor); as a squamous cell cancer, in 25 percent of cases, where individual cells are shaped like skin cells; or as a large cell carcinoma, differentiated from non-small cell lung cancer cells by appearance and by cells’ inability to secrete, as in the case of adenocarcinomas.
The symptoms of lung cancer, as the website notes, depend on the cancer’s location. Where cancer cells remain isolated at the location of the primary tumor, symptoms can include chest pain, cough that sometimes produces blood, fluid in the lungs, pneumonia (sometimes chronic), shortness of breath and gasping or lung sounds.
As the cancer progresses, sufferers may develop hoarseness, difficulty swallowing, a squeaking or whistling sound in the lungs when breathing (also called stridor), weakness, numbness, difficulty walking, bone pain, visual disturbances and neurological difficulties.
Other than explaining the causes, symptoms and types of lung cancer, what the website does best – perhaps better than any other offering aimed at lung cancer victims – is providing hope via a delineation of modern diagnostic tools and treatment options, and potential avenues of assistance in meeting the costs of lung cancer treatment. For example, military veterans may be eligible for help from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Tags: