Lung Cancer: Types, Stages, Symptoms, Diagnosis - Research Paper Example

QUESTIONS/TOPICS FOR MIDTERM WOST 3545 What disease did you choose? Describe the disease. What are the signs or  symptoms? Lung cancer; this is a disease that is characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in the lung tissues. If this disease is left untreated, its growth can spread beyond the lung. This process is termed as metastasis, and it affects the neighboring tissues eventually to other parts of the body. Most of cancers that begin from the lung are usually regarded as primary lung cancers that are carcinomas and are driven from epithelial cells (Desai 45).

The signs or symptoms of lung cancer may include, dyspnea (shortness of breath), wheezing, dysphonia (hoarse voice), chest pain or abdominal pain, hemoptysis (coughingnup blood), fingernails clubbing, dysphgia (difficulty in swallowing), chronic coughing, cachexia, fatigue, and loss of appetite (Desai 35). 2. Is the disease potentially fatal? If so, what is the prognosis or likelihood of survival for a patient once they are diagnosed?Lung Cancer is a worldwide incidence and mortality. The highest rates of lung cancer are in North America and Europe.

Those who have the history of smoking have over fifty percent in chances of contracting the disease. Some other causes of the disease include radon gas, asbestos, other form of viruses, and particulate. The prognostic factors in a non-small cancer including absence or presence of pulmonary symptoms, size of tumor, histology or cell type, stage degree of spread and multiple lymph node metastases, and vascular inversion. Patients with inoperable disease, there may be difficulty or diverse effect of prognosis due to poor performance status and loss of weight, especially more than ten percent.

Small-cell lung cancer prognostic cancers include gender, performance status, involvement of liver and central nervous system, and stage of disease at the time of diagnosis (Falk & Williams 121). 3. What do we know about the possible causes of this disease?  The main causes of lung cancers causes include carcinogens: tobacco smoke, viral infections, and ionic radiation. Exposure to these agents causes cumulative DNA changes in the lining of tissue in the lung bronchi that is the bronchial epithelium.

The destruction of more damages eventually develops to cancer (Falk & Williams 27).4. Are there any screening techniques for diagnosing this disease? What are they? Is screening or treatment expensive and how available is it to all socioeconomic groups? Screening is the use of medical test that is conducted to detect asymptomatic people. The possible lung cancer screening tests computer tomography (CT) and chest radiograph. However, as of December 2009, the lung cancer screening programs have not shown any profit.

Any programs that are geared at treating cancer or detecting cancer is apparently expensive; thus, not favorable to all social economic groups (Falk & Williams 318).5. What treatments are available? How successful are the treatments? Cancer treatment depends on the specific cell of cancer, the spread, and performance status of the patient. The common treatments include surgery, palliative care, radiation, and chemotherapy. These treatments are usually not one hundred percent effective. For instance, surgery cannot be conducted on some locations.

However, VATS lobotomy and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery have enabled minimal approaches to the lung cancer surgeries that have enhanced quicker recovery, reduced minimal cost, and shorter hospital stays (Stewart 513). 6. Is the disease more prevalent in certain races, geographic areas, age ranges, or socioeconomic groups? Globally, lung cancer causes cancer-related death to both women and men, and leads to about 1.3 million deaths annually; this statistics relates to 2004 statistics.

Lung cancer is not affected by some of the above demographics but depends on exposure to causing agents. However, the women and the elderly; persons above fifty are profoundly affected and the highest rates of lung cancer are in North America and Europe; generally, western countries are highly affected (Driscoll 312). 7. In general, how might the disease be expected to impact the quality of a person’s life on social, cultural, or economic levels? Lung cancer management is extremely expensive; affects economic levels of the affected as well as those who are concern with the patients (Stewart 423).

Works Cited Driscoll B. Lung Cancer: Diagnostic and therapeutic methods and reviews. New York: Humana Press, 2003.Desai R. Lung Cancer. London: Cambridge University Press, 2007.Falk S and Williams C. Lung Cancer. New york: Oxford University Press, 2010.Stewart J. Lung Cancer: Prevention, Management, and Emerging Therapies. New York: Springer, 2009.