Early detection of lung cancer in different countries

Among the different cancers, the commonest malignant one is the lung cancer. Survey from different countries around the world, shows that males are more affected than females. The major reason behind this is the increasing number of smokers among the male gender, since smoking being the drive for lung cancer. Tobacco smoking has become widespread among the people in India especially among the young. Prevention is the cheapest way of eliminating cancer in India.

Preventing the tobacco sale can reduce smoking to a level. The tax on tobacco is been increased and also awareness mainly targeted on the young are also created. It has been found that occupational exposure to carcinogens; air pollution both indoor and outdoor and intake of diet are also the reasons for lung cancer in India. Majority of the casualties in India are subjected to screening tests and radiotherapy rather than surgeries. India, being a large populated country, the ill effects of lung cancer is enormous. So, forceful measures are taken against smoking to reduce the morbidity and mortality rate due to lung cancer.

Lung cancer in its final stages killing almost all the cells in the lungs leads to death. The final stages factually mean there is no more cure for the disease and the treatment options has been exhausted. During these days, the victim emotionally may differ from person to person. Some wants to fight it till the end and some readily accept the death, in spite of all sorts of difficulty. However there are some common physical changes in every victim.

To mention a few, fluid around the lung’s outer part called the pleura, which leads to shortness of breath; if the affected cells are present near the airways then there will be bleeding and obstruction; sometimes lung cancer spreads to the rib and spinal bones causing pain; weight loss; As the death nears to the victim, both the emotional and physical health of the person becomes worst. At this time it is better for the family to be near them giving emotional support and an easy way of departing.

Lung cancer when at later stages cannot be cured, but can be controlled to a minimum level. However when found at earlier stages, can be prevented easily. Scientists started researches on this area, conducting many experiments on the victims. In HIV positive people, their body can is capable of finding out immediately when they are assaulted by the HIV virus because of immune response by the cells. Similarly if it is the case in lung cancer it would be easier to detect.

Researchers, thus did a detailed study on the various cells of the body in both cancer affected patients and the normal person, under the category of smokers and non-smokers. They found three markers that were present more often in cancer developed smokers than the ones without developing cancer. However their predictions worked only for twice the cancer population. Sometimes even the ones without developing lung cancer were predicted that they would develop it. So methods like CT screening are combined with the above method for greater accuracy. Even though detected early, prevention plays a major role.

A screening tool detects the lung cancer at its earlier stages so that it’s much easier to cure. At times only those at advanced stages are detected. Due to this late detection , the survival rate for the individuals with cancer at starting stage is gradually increasing and has reached 15%. In the earlier days , chest x-ray and sputum cytology were basically used to detect but were not known to improve the survival rate , so these methods are no longer used in routine smokers.

Spiral CT scan is the only one that is currently followed which is similar to the conventional CT scan but performs little faster and the amount of radiation incident is comparatively less. The basic qualities of a screen test are sensitivity and specific. Sensitive means to accurately detect the disease at earlier stages and specific means accurate in picking up the spots. But the above mentioned scan is less specific. Another important factor is the cost. The screen test should be evaluated to know whether it is cost effective. In this case it is not still justified because of the above mentioned reason.

Lung cancer, a malignant disease, is very difficult to cure it completely. However it can be reduced by proper medication. One such medication is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy basically aims at killing of cancer cells or makes them inactive or less active. It is known that cancer cells divide and multiply faster than ordinary human cells. The drugs employed by chemotherapy find these fast dividing cells and kills them. Generally oral pills are used as drugs.

The chemotherapeutic medication varies at different levels of cell division. Hence to destroy the maximum number of cancer cells, more than one type of drug is used. Initially two or more types of drugs are given for this reason. Chemotherapy is not only used in the treatment of lung cancer since it can kill any type of cancer cells present throughout the body. Hence it is often called as the “systemic treatment”. The major side effect of this type of treatment is that it also kills the normal dividing cells like hair follicles, bone marrow cells leading to hair loss, low blood cell count.