LUNG CANCER RISK FACTORS AND INTERVENTIONS

Course overview

Course Objectives: 1.Describe the major risk factors for lung cancer 2.Identify the most common types of lung cancer 3.Identify the treatments for lung cancer 4.Describe the role of the R.T. in the treatment of patients with lung cancer 5.Identify some of the current research in the treatment of lung cancer INTRODUCTION The general prognosis of lung cancer is poor because doctors tend not to find the disease until it is at an advanced stage. Research has determined that the five-year survival rate is 40%-50% for early stage lung cancer, but only 1%-5% in advanced, inoperable lung cancer. The key to the treatment of lung cancer (as it is for many types of cancer), is early identification. An early diagnosis can help a patient receive quick and effective treatment. Once the disease has progressed it will begin to metastasize (spread) into other organs, and at that point, the disease has become terminal. The sad fact of lung cancer is, in most cases, it is completely preventable. Risk factors (identified in the next section) reveal how and why lung cancer has become such a deadly disease in modern times. Here are the startling facts about lung cancer from the American Lung Association: Lung cancer causes more deaths than the next three most common cancers combined (colon, breast and pancreatic). An estimated 158,040 Americans are expected to die from lung cancer in 2015, accounting for approximately 27 percent of all cancer deaths. The number of deaths due to lung cancer has increased approximately 3.5 percent between 1999 and 2012 from 152,156 to 157,499. The number of deaths among men has reached a plateau but the number is still rising among women. In 2012, there were 86,740 deaths due to lung cancer in men and 70,759 in women. Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide, accounting for 1.8 million new cases and 1.6 million deaths in 2012. The lung also is a very common site for metastasis from tumors in other parts of the body. Tumor metastases are made up of the same type of cells as the original (primary) tumor. For example, if prostate cancer spreads via the bloodstream to the lungs, it is metastatic prostate cancer in the lung and is not lung cancer.