November 17 marks the International Day to Fight Lung Cancer.a disease that can be fatal, affecting both men and women around the world.
With this date we want to raise awareness in society about its prevention, avoiding risk factors such as tobacco, alcohol and other harmful substances for health. Just like the importance of your early detection.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men and the second leading cause of cancer death in women in the world. In Argentina, about 12,000 new cases are diagnosed per year, with a record of around 8,500 deaths per year.
Within the framework of International Lung Cancer Day, the Argentine League to Fight Cancer (LALCEC), calls for awareness about this disease, its prevention and the importance of its early diagnosis.
Dr. Carlos Silva, Medical Director and coordinator of the LALCEC Patient Support Area comments that “84% of lung cancer patients are associated with smoking, making it the main cause. But not only the active smoker but also the passive one, that is, the one who is in an environment full of smoke produced by the combustion of cigarettes and tobacco.”
In its early stages it is usually asymptomatic and the clinical manifestations it generates are often non-specific, which means that the symptoms appear when the cancer is already advanced. Some symptoms that it is recommended to consult with a doctor are: persistent cough, coughing up blood or rusty-colored phlegm, increasing chest pain, loss of weight or appetite, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, hoarseness, wheezing. chest or voice changes.
“Likewise, other symptoms that are related to a metastatic disease may alarm us, such as bone pain that does not end and is always in the same places of the skeleton or permanent and progressive fatigue and weight loss, which are more general for the most tumors. It is one of the most difficult to detect early, but diagnoses can be made with imaging studies, according to medical indication, such as a chest x-ray or low-radiation tomography,” adds Dr. Silva.
Among the risk factors that could cause this cancer we can mention tobacco smoke, air pollution, prolonged exposure to harmful substances, family history or advanced age (+65), even continuous inhalation of wood smoke.
Prevention
“As for prevention – Silva explains – there is a primary stage, which is based on raising awareness about avoiding smoking or quitting, if one has already acquired dependence; not exposing oneself to the combustion of hydrocarbons in closed environments, and reversing environmental pollution, a more social action. And secondary prevention that results in screening, which is the search for patients who may have lung cancer. A useful tool when it is specifically aimed at risk populations, which are people between 40 and 50 years old, with the habit of smoking or who have not passed 15 years since they quit smoking. In these cases, it is recommended to consult with a specialist for early detection through a low-radiation chest tomography. Early diagnosis contributes to the success of treatment. In early stages, this type of cancer can be treated surgically with a successful cure in approximately 20% of cases.”
On the side of people who have to go through lung cancer, in addition to surgery (in the case of early stages), chemotherapies and radiotherapies, new treatments are currently being presented, such as treatments directed against specific molecular targets to treat this type of tumors, since having been able to identify the mutations, it can be medicated with drugs that “work” locally on them. Also immunotherapy, which allows many patients to live much longer and cancer is not even the reason for their death.
Source: Ambito
