Lung cancer is smoking must be causing the problem? And air quality related?
Smoking and air pollution is the main cause of lung cancer. Produced after cigarette smoke contains thousands of ignition of hazardous substances and carcinogenic substances such as tobacco tar which is recognized. China has more than 300 million smokers, male smokers, non-smokers lung cancer mortality rate is 8-20 times. When air pollution environment to live, work, while smoking, two carcinogenic factors exist, it will promote each other, with a strong carcinogenic effect. In recent years, lung cancer was younger trend began, is no longer in the elderly patents. Some young patients, no smoking, no lung disease, there is no family history of lung cancer. Such a patient is likely to be inhaled harmful gases and cause long-term accumulation of dirty air. Special notice is that early detection of lung cancer is a very difficult, and there is no obvious early symptoms of cancer, such as patients found basically to advanced, so prevention is an important part.
The early symptoms of lung cancer, the diagnosis will not be confused with other diseases?
Most patients with lung cancer is found in a late, missed the best treatment period. This is because the early symptoms of lung cancer, chronic cough in some patients be mistaken for a cold colds , bronchitis or lung inflammation, and smoking habits, mild cough think it is a normal reaction after smoke caused by the neglect of health examination, missed opportunities for early detection of lesions. In addition, although some patients participate in the examination, but the chest X-ray to check the rate of misdiagnosis is high, once again irritating cough or blood stained sputum, chest pain, difficulty breathing and even when diagnosed with lung cancer has grown to more than half of middle and late. Early detection, early diagnosis, early treatment is to improve the cure rate of lung cancer, the key to reducing mortality, population screening can be found in the vast majority of early lung cancer can be clinically cured by surgical removal. For advanced lung cancer should be emphasized that multidisciplinary treatment, the efficacy of any single treatment are limited.
How to deal with relatively terrible non -small cell lung cancer ?
According to the histopathological classification of lung cancer can be divided into two categories: non-small cell lung cancer, small cell carcinoma, small cell lung cancer accounts instead of 80% -85% of the total lung cancer. Clinical studies have shown that targeted therapy for the treatment of advanced non-small cell carcinoma was better. First, the survival of patients can significantly extended. Targeting therapies may be used interchangeably with other treatments, an increase of weapons against cancer; secondly, fewer side effects and improve patient quality of life. Targeted therapy may have to make some patients can be treated like other chronic non-cancer treated the same as non-small cell lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer will no longer be so terrible. Targeted therapy agents include monoclonal and polyclonal antibody class of tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as gefitinib, which is a class of oral drugs.
Targeted therapy is often likened to that of a missile strike, how to understand this?
The reason is called "targeted therapy" because it only destroy cancer cells without harming normal cells, just as sharpshooter hit wherever. If chemotherapy likened overwhelming, regardless of the enemy Scud shells that targeted therapy is like a hit in the precision-guided missiles. Many such patients with lung cancer, the thought that the late or recurrent lesions, very afraid, after receiving a targeted therapy in lung nodule shadow actually completely disappeared, and now lives just like healthy people.