Lung cancer is caused by disorderly growth of uncommon cells which line the air passage, usually starting off in a single or both lungs. The irregular cells do not mature into healthy lung tissue but instead divide speedily and result in tumor formation.

Causes behind lung cancer:

Smoking: This is considered as the most significant source of lung cancer. As reported by multiple researches and studies, cigarettes contain over 4,000 chemicals, most of which are cancer causing agents. Active smoking is one of the major causes of lung cancer but what may come to you as a surprise is that extended periods of passive smoking is also a major factor.
Pollution and Exposure: There is high risk of lung cancer development when there is occupational exposure to pollution by chemicals released from industrial factories. Chemical exposure of this kind refers to prolonged exposure over quite few months or years. Some examples of these chemicals are asbestos, diesel exhaust among many others.
Radioactive Gas: Radioactive gases naturally occur in small masses present in all soils and rocks. However, if you breathe in radioactive gases your lungs will damage and may cause the development of abnormal tissue which can cause lung cancer.
Family history: A family history of cancer, especially lung cancer will also put you at high risk of developing lung cancer.
Treatment methods of lung cancer:

Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is a method in which drugs are injected through veins in your arm (intravenously) or orally or in a combination of both. These drugs kill cancer cells and help to stop it from spreading any further as well.
Clinical Trials: These trials are experimental lung cancer treatment studies. You may have to try out this clinical therapy if other treatment methods aren t working and only if you are accepted into it.
Surgery: A surgeon will help remove affected areas of the lung including cancerous tumors via surgery. The surgeon may need to remove parts of the lung along with the cancerous growth. In certain cases, one side of the lung may also be completely removed to stop the spread of the malignant tissue.
Radiation Therapy: This is a therapy where high energy electromagnetic waves are passed through your body to destroy cancer cells with the help of high-powered energy beams.
Can you prevent lung cancer?

Nutrition -- A  healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables may also help reduce your risk of lung cancer. Some evidence suggests that a diet high in fruits and vegetables may help protect against lung cancer in both smokers and non-smokers. But any positive effect of fruits and vegetables on lung cancer risk would be much less than the increased risk from smoking.
Exercise -- Even moderate amounts of exercise can aid in lung cancer prevention. Studies suggest that even something as simple as gardening twice a week is associated with a lower risk of developing lung cancer.
Smoking Habits -- If you stop smoking before a cancer develops, your damaged lung tissue gradually starts to repair itself. No matter what your age or how long you ve smoked, quitting may lower your risk of lung cancer and help you live longer. 
Avoidance of Air Pollution -- Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and, in particular, particulate matter with absorbed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other genotoxic chemicals has been suspected to increase the risk for lung cancer. So, avoid air pollution as much as possible.

Lung Cancer - Ways You Can Prevent It!

Without our lungs, it would be impossible to breathe. People suffering from chronic lung diseases have compromised lung functioning. This leads to shortness of breath, fatigue and weakness. In turn, this can make the person avoid anything that exerts the lungs such as exercise. While this may seem like a good idea, it is actually detrimental. Not exercising can further weaken the lungs and muscles and make this a vicious cycle. This is where physiotherapy can help with lung rehabilitation or pulmonary rehabilitation.

Physiotherapy is a branch of medicine that treats diseases and health conditions with exercise and manual therapy. Physiotherapists may also use radiation, sound waves, electric therapy, prosthesis and assistive devices. The aim here is not to cure the disease but to improve lung functioning and the patient s quality of life. Pulmonary rehabilitation can help in a number of ways.

It reduces breathlessness: As the lung muscles weaken, their ability to pump oxygen and transport it to the other parts of the body reduces. This can make a person feel breathless even with the slightest exertion. Lung rehabilitation works on strengthening the lung muscles to reduce this breathlessness.
It increases muscle strength in the arms and legs: When oxygen does not reach the limbs, they, in turn, get weaker. By strengthening the lungs, lung rehabilitation increases the muscle strength in the patient s arms and legs.
It increases stamina and endurance: Stamina is directly linked to lung functioning. By helping the patient breathe more comfortably, lung rehabilitation increases the patient s stamina and helps him or her endure more physical exercise.
It helps patients understand your condition: Physiotherapy is part exercise and part education. By helping patients get an insight into their condition, physiotherapy helps them come to terms with their limitations and motivates them to work harder towards overcoming them.
It increases self-confidence: Feeling breathless and tired all the time can make people feel frustrated. This is especially so because these things cannot be controlled without help. Physiotherapy teaches patients how to deal with these issues and thus increases their confidence in dealing with their medical issues.
It makes patients more independent: A lack of energy can make people dependent on others. Even simple tasks like getting a bottle of water from the fridge can seem like a tiring task. Physiotherapy improves lung functioning and hence makes the person feel less tired doing everyday tasks. This makes the person more independent and improves their quality of life.

Lung Rehabilitation With Physiotherapy!

Lung cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in one or both lungs. These abnormal cells do not carry out the functions of normal lung cells and do not develop into healthy lung tissue. As they grow, the abnormal cells can form tumors and interfere with the functioning of the lung, which provides oxygen to the body via the blood.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death due to cancer in both men and women throughout the world. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, approximately one out of every 14 men and women in the U.S. is diagnosed with cancer of the lung at some point in their lifetime. Lung cancer is predominantly a disease of the elderly; almost 70% of people diagnosed with lung cancer are over 65 years of age, while less than 3% of lung cancers occur in people under 45 years of age.

What Causes Lung Cancer?

The development of lung cancer is strongly associated with cigarette smoking, approximately 90% of lung cancers are attributable to use of tobacco. Pipe and cigar smoking can also cause lung cancer, but the risk is not as high as with cigarette smoking. Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds, many of which are cancer causing (carcinogens). Passive smoking, i.e. the inhalation of tobacco smoke by non-smokers who live or work with smokers, is also an established risk factor for the development of lung cancer.

Genetic susceptibility (i.e. family history) may play a role in the development of lung cancer. Other causes of lung cancer include air pollution (from vehicles, industry, and power generation) and inhalation of asbestos fibres (usually in the workplace).

Lung Cancer Symptoms

Early symptoms and signs of lung cancer

There may be no symptoms at the onset of the disease. When present, common symptoms of lung cancer may include:

Coughing: This includes a persistent cough that doesn't go away or changes to a chronic smoker's cough, such as more coughing or pain.
Coughing up blood: Coughing up blood or rust-colored sputum (spit or phlegm) should always be discussed with your doctor.
Breathing Difficulties: Shortness of breath, wheezing or noisy breathing (called stridor) may all be signs of lung cancer.
Loss of Appetite: Many cancers cause changes in appetite, which may lead to unintended weight loss.
Fatigue: It is common to feel weak or excessively tired.
Recurring infections: Recurring infections, like bronchitis or pneumonia, may be one of the signs of lung cancer.
Signs of advanced stages of lung cancer

Advanced stages of lung cancer are often characterized by the spread of cancer to distant sites in the body. This may affect the bones, liver or brain. As other parts of the body are affected, new lung cancer symptoms may develop, including:

Bone pain
Swelling of the face, arms or neck
Headaches, dizziness or limbs that become weak or numb
Jaundice
Lumps in the neck or collar-bone region
Treatment

Treatment for cancer involves a combination of surgery to remove cancer cells, chemotherapy and radiation therapy to kill cancer cells. Lung cancer is incurable unless complete surgical removal of the tumour cells can be achieved. Surgery is the most effective treatment for lung cancer, but only a few percentage of lung cancers are suitable for surgery i.e. Stage I and II NSCLC and cancer that has not spread beyond the lung.

Radiation therapy may be used for both NSCLC and SCLC and is a good option for people who are not suitable for surgery or who refuse surgery. Chemotherapy is used for both NSCLC and SCLC. Chemotherapy drugs may be given alone or in combination with surgery or radiation therapy. Chemotherapy is the treatment of first choice for SCLC since it has usually spread extensively in the body by the time it has been diagnosed.

Also used in the treatment of lung cancer are targeted therapies. These are drugs (gefitinib and erlotinib) or antibodies (cetuximab, bevacizumab) that block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules involved in tumor growth and progression. They are used in some patients with NSCLC that does not respond to standard chemotherapy.

Lung Cancer: Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

Lungs are the most important organ of our body that has the responsibility of taking in the oxygen and releasing out carbon dioxide. When cancer develops in it, the entire body gets imbalanced. Lung cancer leads to more death than any other type of cancer, which is why identifying the symptoms and knowing the causes are instrumental in obtaining a timely diagnosis as well as in prevention of lung cancer.

Symptoms of Lung Cancer

In the early stages:

Persistent coughing

Chest pain

Bleeding

Fatigue

Loss of appetite

Sudden weight loss

Headaches

Coughing up blood

In the later stages:

Bone pain

Joint pain

Facial paralysis

Neck swelling

Blood clotting

Weakness

Sever chest pain

Causes of Lung Cancer:

Smoking: People who smoke are more prone to lung cancer. With the increase in the number of cigarettes you smoke, your chances of getting lung cancer increase too. People who don't smoke but are surrounded by the smokers also have high chances of being affected by this form of cancer.
Exposure to Asbestos: Asbestos is a group of mineral, which is present naturally in the environment. Lung cancer can occur due to the inhalation and ingestion of asbestos fibers.
Exposure to Ranon Gas: Ranon is a radioactive gas, which is formed naturally on decaying of radioactive elements. It is found in low levels in the air that we breathe and the water that we drink. Consumption of air and water having this gas leads to lung cancer.
High Levels of Air Pollution: Presence of high levels of dust particles and pollutants in the air that we breathe can cause lung cancer. 1-2% of lung cancer is caused because of it.
High Levels of Arsenic in Drinking Water: Consuming water with arsenic content is harmful as it directly affects the lungs and when the arsenic content is too high, it may lead to lung cancer.
Exposure to Chemicals: Exposure to certain chemicals like uranium, coal products, gasoline, diesel exhaust and mustard gas can also cause lung cancer.
Family History of Lung Cancer: Chances of getting lung cancer increase if your parents, child or siblings are already prone to lung cancer. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Lung Cancer - Symptoms & Causes! 

Brain metastases from systemic cancer are the most common type of intracranial neoplasm in adults, being almost 10 times more common than primary malignant brain tumors, which cause a significant burden on the management of patients with advanced cancer (1). The lungs represent one of the most frequent sources of metastases to the brain, with a probability of (36 64%) (3). Symptoms suffered by the patients include headaches, epilepsy, focal weakness, numbness or changes in mental status. The prognosis of patients with brain metastases is not optimistic and the median survival time is  1 2 months if left untreated. The 1-year survival rate has been recorded as 10.4% (4,5). The treatment of metastatic brain tumors is complex; not only due to being able to provide local control and improve neurological function, but also due to factors such as age, performance and systemic disease status and the size, volume, location and number of metastases at presentation

CyberKnife is a robotic radiosurgery system with a linear particle accelerator (linac), which is coupled with real-time imaging to track and compensate for the patient s or target s motion. As a relatively non-invasive treatment modality, CyberKnife demonstrates certain benefits, including a more accurate target localization and improved dose delivery for the management of metastatic brain tumors that allows higher biologically effective dose delivery without increased incidence of toxicity.

In the present case, the results for the treatment of multiple brain metastases after CyberKnife surgery with a 7 8 Gy marginal dose was promising. CyberKnife for metastatic brain tumors is an effective and safe method for reducing the marginal dose prescribed for multiple brain metastases and for minimizing the radiation-related neurotoxicities. In conclusion, CyberKnife, a focused, highly-targeted radiosurgery and fractionated radiotherapy is particularly useful for multiple brain metastases. CyberKnife provides the advantage of the management of local recurrence and a tolerable complication rate. Although the treatment of brain metastases has been performed with CyberKnife, the clinical significance and optimal dose fractionation scheme require further investigation.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

CyberKnife Therapy Of 24 Multiple Brain Metastases From Lung Cancer!

Radiotherapy is a kind of treatment that kills the cancer cells by using high energy beams. Specialists use radiotherapy to treat a wide range of lung cancer. For early stage lung cancer, the radiotherapy may get rid of the cancer totally. For the small cell lung cancer you may have radiotherapy only. Then again you may have it with another treatment, for example, chemotherapy or surgery.

For small cell lung cancer, radiotherapy is used with or after chemotherapy. Chemotherapy makes the tumor in the lung shrink. You may have radiotherapy to your cerebrum, which tackles any cancer cells that may have spread to the brain. This is called prophylactic cranial illumination (PCI). In case of advanced lung cancer, the treatment contracts the tumor and controls it for a while. It additionally decreases symptoms like shortness of breath.

The types of radiotherapy used for the lungs include:

Outer radiotherapy: This kind of radiotherapy comes from a machine and is administered to the body through an external source. It depends on the kind of cancer and the progression of the same. You may have three radiotherapy sittings every day for around 12 days. This sort of radiotherapy is known as CHART ceaseless hyperfractionated quickened radiotherapy. A few people with small cell lung cancer may have treatment twice a day. If you are getting radiotherapy to control the side effects of lung cancer, you may have a single treatment or day by day medications for up to 3 weeks.



Inner radiotherapy: This is called brachytherapy or endobronchial treatment. This will be administered during a bronchoscopy. The radiation is given through a thin tube that the specialist puts inside your aviation route for a few of minutes. Specialists use this sort of treatment to shrink a tumor that is blocking or pushing your breathing track and making breathing troublesome for you.

These are some of the procedures that take place while you are having lung cancer radiotherapy:

Radiotherapy machines are enormous. The machines are fixed in one position or are sometimes ready to go around your body to give treatment from various angles.
Prior to your first treatment, your radiographers will clarify what you will hear and see. The treatment room normally have docks for you to connect to music players. So you can listen to your own choice of music.
You cannot feel radiotherapy when you really have the treatment. It takes anything from one second to a few minutes. It is essential to lie similarly situated every time, so the radiographers may take a short time to get you prepared.
Once you are in the right position, the staff will allow you to sit in the space for a couple of minutes. They watch you constantly on a closed circuit TV screen. They may request that you hold your breath or take shallow breaths during the treatment.
In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Radiotherapy For Lung Cancer!

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