Lung Cancer Causes – Radon Gas

Lung Cancer Causes – Radon Gas

Radon is known to accumulate in closed spaces. An increased level is seen in underground rock mines, especially those containing uranium. This concentration is mainly caused by gas entering directly from the ore, but radon can also be brought into the mine when it is dissolved in water. For indoor radon, diffusion from subsoil remains the most important source. Other additional, less significant sources include building materials and radon dissolved in water. Within the structure of a building, radon concentrations are highest in the basement, due to the proximity to the subsoil.4People residing near uranium mines have a higher radon exposure. Indoor radon levels vary throughout the United States, depending on local conditions.

Exposure to radon gas is considered to be the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. Although radon occurs naturally in an outdoor environment, concentrated levels of the gas associated with uranium deposits can be harmful. In particular, people that live or work in an environment that is contaminated with a high concentration of radon have been linked to a risk of lung cancer.

Radon is the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer, causing 12% of lung cancer deaths.Radon is a gas found in soil that can leak under building through gaps in the foundation or insulation. Radon is in 1 out of every 15 homes in Illinois. Smoking and radon exposure together greatly increases your risk.

Radon, a colourless and odourless gas emitted through soil, is believed to be responsible for 16 per cent of lung cancer deaths in the country each year, making it the second-leading cause of lung cancer fatalities after tobacco use, says the Canadian Cancer Society. It's estimated that 3,000 Canadians die from lung cancer caused by radon annually.

Researchers have focused on the relationship between lung cancer risk and residential radon exposure and its effects. Comparisons of radon gas levels have been made between homes where residents have and have not developed lung cancer.

Radon exposure increases your risk of developing lung cancer. It is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.

Your risk of cancer depends on several factors:

• the level of radon in your house
• how long you are exposed
• whether you smoke (exposure to radon and tobacco use together can significantly increase your risk of lung cancer)
  
  

Radon is classified as a human carcinogen by various US agencies, including the National Toxicology Program (NTP), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). In addition to the scientific evidence described above, there is strong epidemiologic evidence to support the causal association between radon and lung cancer. The initial evidence emerged from the observation that many underground miners died of lung cancer. This finding led to the detailed study of various cohorts in miners across many countries, including Czechoslovakia, France, Australia, the United States, Canada, Sweden, and China. Although most of these were in uranium mines, the studies from the last 3 countries involved other metal mines. An increased risk of lung cancer from radon exposure was demonstrated among these cohorts. The relative risk (RR) was found to be time-dependent, and decreased when more time had elapsed since last exposure. Long-term exposure yielded a greater risk than did short-term exposure, irrespective of the rate of exposure. Data from these miner studies led to an interest in the risks associated with indoor radon exposure, and triggered a number of case-control studies that evaluated residential radon exposure. These studies enrolled people from the general population who had been exposed to indoor radon, and compared patients with lung cancer to lung cancer–free controls. 

 

Yet a national survey commissioned by the society found that only one in three respondents was aware of health issues concerning radon gas, while about the same proportion knew the radioactive gas could be "very harmful." About one-quarter of the 1,238 respondents had no idea it posed a health risk at all.

Research led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences studied residential radon gas exposure among women (413 with lung cancer and 614 without lung cancer) that lived in their homes for at least 20 years. Data was recorded concerning various factors such as radon gas level measurement in the participants’ homes, information about the homes, and observation of lung cancer tissues. The outcome of this study indicated a link between lung cancer incidence and high rates of continuous radon gas exposure. Other research has been conducted throughout the United States and other regions of the world. The majority of research likewise shows a relationship between residential radon gas exposure and high incidence of lung cancer; although there are cases where there have been inconsistencies in some studies. Discrepancies may be due to variations in radon level in different homes, difficulty in radon gas measurements over long periods of time, and varying sizes of groups that participate in studies.

If the radon level in your home is above the Canadian guideline of 200 becquerels/metre³, you need to reduce it. The higher the radon level in your home, the sooner it needs to be reduced.

More accurate ways to measure radon gas exposure are being developed. Researchers used a new method for measuring indoor radon gas levels during a study conducted in Sweden in 2002. Scientists used objects (i.e. glass, mirror, etc.) that had remained present in a home for an extended period of time (15 or 20 years) to measure radon levels. This and earlier methods of radon gas measurement have shown a relationship between long-term, high level radon gas exposure and lung cancer.

One of these solutions is a commonly-used method known as sub-slab depressurization. A pipe is installed through the foundation floor and is piped to the outside with a small fan attached, which draws the radon from under the house and pushes it back outside, before it can enter your home. This solution can reduce the radon level in a home by more than 90%.

Lung Cancer Causes – Smoking

Lung Cancer Causes – Smoking

Lungcancer is the leading cancer killer of American men and women.1 Not all people who get lung cancer are smokers, but many people who smoke do get lung cancer. In fact, smoking is directly responsible for approximately 90% of lung cancer deaths.

By far the biggest cause of lung cancer is smoking. In the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 26.2 million men (23.5 percent) and 20.9 million women (18.1 percent) who smoke. These people are at increased risk for lung, breast, throat, stomach, and other cancers, as well as heart attacks, strokes, emphysema, asthma, and a variety of other illnesses.

Cigarette smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer. Scientists have reported widely on the link between cancer and smoking since the 1960s. Since then, study after study has provided more proof that cigarette smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer.

A person who smokes more than one pack of cigarettes a day has a 20-25 times greater risk of developing lung cancer than someone who has never smoked.

You may be familiar with some of the statistics, but if you, a co-worker, friend, or loved one is a smoker, it's worth taking another look at what cigarettes can do to our bodies.

Sadly, this is a disease that is easily preventable. If you don't smoke, please don't start. It is not only an expensive and messy habit, but it is a dangerous one. There is nothing good that can be said about smoking. It is guaranteed to increase your risk of dying prematurely and suffering needlessly.

Before cigarette smoking became popular after World War I, doctors rarely, if ever, saw patients with lung cancer. But today, lung cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer. Over 85 percent of people with lung cancer developed it because they smoked cigarettes.

If you smoke cigarettes, you are at much higher risk for lung cancer than a person who has never smoked. The risk of dying from lung cancer is 23 times higher for men who smoke and 13 times higher for women who smoke than for people who have never smoked. Lung cancer can affect young and old alike.

I will expand more on smoking and its connection to cancer at the end of this report, but for now I want to review the other less obvious causes.

Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, including more than 70 that can cause cancer. Smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body, including the esophagus, larynx, mouth, nose, throat, trachea, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach, cervix, bone marrow, and blood.

Some people think only those who smoke can get lung cancer. While it is true that smoking is the greatest risk factor for lung cancer, there are a number of other ways that you can contract this disease.

Stopping smoking greatly reduces your risk for developing lung cancer. After you stop, your risk levels off. Ten years after the last cigarette, the risk of dying from lung cancer drops by 50 percent which does not mean, however, that risk is eliminated.And, despite major progress over the past half-century, cigarette use continues to be the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States.

If you are a smoker, the unfortunate fact is that you will always have a much higher risk of developing lung cancer from any other cause than a non-smoker, simply because you are already dealing with the greatest risk factor: smoking. Adding other risk factors on to that simply means you are even more at risk than you were before for developing the disease.

Smoking cigars and pipes also puts you at risk for lung cancer. Cigar and pipe smokers have a higher risk of lung cancer than nonsmokers. Even cigar and pipe smokers who do not inhale are at increased risk for lung, mouth, and other types of cancer.

Lung Cancer Life Expectancy

Lung Cancer Life Expectancy

The human lung can be divided into right lung and left lung. Right lung has three lobes and the left lung has got two lobes. Lingula is a structure present in the left lung that corresponds to the middle lobe of the right lung. The bronchi are the main air passage to the lungs. They further get narrower to form bronchioles which have got sac like structure at the end. This sac like structure at the end is called as alveoli where the exchange of gases takes place.

Perhaps the most common question we are asked is “what is stage 4 lung cancer life expectancy?” Not unexpected, since 40 percent of people have already progressed to stage 4 lung cancer at the time they are diagnosed. Before answering the question, though, it is important to talk a little about how the answer – the statistical answer – is derived.

Stage 4 lung cancer is at last point of this cancer type. And at this stage, cancer has spread to other lung or organs. Two variations of stage 4 lung cancer present. These are stage 4A which is that the cancer cells spread within the chest and stage 4B that is the spreading to other organs such as brain, bones. There exists a misunderstanding situation at this point. Life expectancy is not as low as people thought.

Lung cancer is generally divided into two types, small-cell carcinoma, also know as ‘oat cell’, and non-small cell carcinoma. The second is further broken down into ‘squamous’ which involves cells from the lining of the airways, and non-squamous cell, which includes other cells. The patient’s lung cancer life expectancy depends on which type is diagnosed, what stage the cancer is in when diagnosed and the course of treatment followed.

Expecting a life expectancy of five years after the therapy of lung cancer is not impossible. The life expectancy depends upon the period within the structure of lung cancer, when it was diagnosed, the treatments used to cure the cancer and whether the cancer has recurred or not.

Life expectancy in stage 4 lung cancer depends on so many factors. Firstly, if you are young, your recovery processes will be faster than older people. Also, if you are women, you are more likely to be a convalescent person rather than male people. The life expectancy for being sportive people is much higher than the others. This is all about health nutrition and its effects. In addition to these, the number of tumour cells is a very crucial factor for treatment processes.

Stage 4 lung cancer life expectancy can vary considerably among different people.

The surgery is not a good option due to same reason in stage 4 colon cancer. When the tumour cells spread to other tissues or organs, it is hard to say that the surgery can’t serve the purpose of treatment in stage 4 lung cancer. As I mentioned before, the stage 4 lung cancer is the most advanced position of this disease. The chemotherapy is the most advised treatment approach and the second one is immunotherapies.

• Your particular lung cancer type and location – Stage 4 lung cancer encompasses several lung cancer types and includes cancers that have spread to only one distant region or those that have spread extensively. Survival can also be affected by the genetic characteristics of the tumor (learn more about molecular profiling for lung cancer); with cancers that have "targetable mutations" such as ALK-positive lung cancer, ROS1 mutations, and EGFR mutations being more likely to respond to the newer targeted therapies for lung cancer.

• Your age – Younger people tend to live longer than older people with lung cancer.

• Your sex – The life expectancy for a woman with lung cancer is higher at each stage of lung cancer.

• Your general health at the time of diagnosis – Being healthy overall at the time of diagnosis is associated with a longer life expectancy, and a greater ability to withstand treatments that may extend survival.

• How you respond to treatment – Side effects of treatments such as chemotherapy, surgery, targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and radiation therapy vary among different people, and may limit your ability to tolerate treatment.

• Other health conditions you may have – Health conditions such as emphysema may lower stage 4 lung cancer life expectancy.

• Complications of lung cancer – Complications such as blood clots can lower stage 4 lung cancer life expectancy.
• Where your lung cancer has spread - Lung cancer can spread to nearly any region of the body, but most commonly spreads to the brain, the bones, the liver, and the adrenal glands. As noted below, when only a few lung cancer brain metastases or liver metastases are present, treatment with the goal of long-term survival is sometimes possible.

Stage 4 lung cancer is not directly related to drinking tea, it is about smoking actually. Doctors are not good at analysing how long a patient will survive. So patients should be patient and remember the beauty of life. For each type of cancer, getting a diagnosis at early stages is very critic because later in the stages, the treatment is getting more difficult, unfortunately. Every patient should hope against all hope.

This variation of cancer affects nearly fifteen percent of patients. It spreads quickly and is difficult to detect. These factors contribute to a low survival rate. Chances of successful treatment are improved in younger patients and when the problem is found in the ‘limited stage’, when it is localized and easier to remove. Cancer in an ‘extensive stage’ has spread and will require aggressive treatment.

The survival rate for the patients who underwent radiation therapy alone is one year for about 57% patients, two years for about 36% patients and three years for about 21% patients. Patients who underwent combination of radiation therapy along with thermal ablation show higher percentage of survival rate.

One study puts small cell survival rates at 2 percent to thirty percent, depending on how progressed the disease is. Radiation therapy or ‘thermal ablation’ can prolong life, but the latter destroys or debilitates organs or tissue in the process. Small-cell carcinoma of the lungs left untreated is expected to kill within a year or less.

87% of patients show survival rate of one year, 70% patients show survival rate of two years and 57% people show the survival rate of three years. Life expectancy is increased when treatments were given in combination. The recurrence rate is also reduced significantly.

Stage 3 is advanced cancer, and the gender, age, health of the patient and carcinoma type affect the chances of extending the patient’s life. Statistics show that women, younger patients and people in good health are expected to survive longer at any stage. General health complications or a tumor located near vital organs will make it harder to eradicate the disease.

It is observed that lung cancer is mostly developed in the older people. 2 people out of 3 diagnosed with lung cancer are above the age of 65. Just 3% of patients below the age of 45 accounts for the lung cancer. The risk of developing lung cancer in the males is higher than females. The ratio male lung cancer is 1:13 whereas for the females is 1:16. This comprises both smokers and non-smokers. It is true that people who smoke are at a much higher risk of developing lung cancer than people who do not smoke. Prognosis has a close relation with lung cancer life expectancy.

Statistics from Lynn Eldridge, MD, show that the average life expectancy at stage 3A and the more advanced 3B, is fifteen months and thirteen months respectively. They also show the five year survival rate to be 23 percent for patients in stage 3A and 10 percent for those in 3B. Stage 4 is more advanced and considered only two percent curable. According to Eldridge, at least 40% of lung cancers have reached this stage by the time they are diagnosed. Treatment and coping are emphasized for these patients, and may prolong the patient’s life.