Cancer and Healthy

It is a known fact that lung cancer is the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of cancer deaths in both sexes, not only in the West. They account for about 30% of all deaths from cancer.

The unfortunate reality is that many of these deaths could be - fully 85% of all lung cancers are caused by smoking. This also applies to those who breathe in second hand smoke from others in the neighborhood. If everyone would stop smoking, the incidence of lung cancer would drop dramatically.

After smoking, radon exposure is the second most common cause of lung cancer in America. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that approximately 21,000 deaths per year caused by exposure to radon indoors.

Among the various ethnic groups, the incidence of lung cancer is highest among African-Americans. This is caused by a high cultural tendency in this group to take up smoking.

This is also one of the deadliest forms of cancer around. To give some comparative statistics, the five-year survival rate of colon cancer is 62% and 87% of breast cancer. The corresponding figure for prostate cancer is 98%. In sharp contrast, the five-year survival rate for lung cancer is a low 15%.

One of the reasons for this low rate of survival is that lung cancer appears to be diagnosed at a very late stage of the cycle - typically during phase 3 or phase 4. By that time, the cancer has spread to other parts of the body and has influenced many vital organs. This reduces the chance of survival.

There is a prevailing myth that the lungs of a smoker will return to normal fifteen years after it stops smoking and at that point, his chances of developing lung cancer are the same as that for a non-smoker. The reality is that the lungs of a smoker never again quite normal. However, it is true that his chances of getting lung cancer to drop off over time, although it probably never drops to the level of a person who has remained smoke-free whole life long.

This is confirmed by the fact that while existing smokers make up about 40% of all new cases of lung cancer, ex-smokers account for the full 50% of such cases.

Studies show that former smokers have about 9 times greater risk of dying of lung cancer compared with those who never smoked. Current smokers It is said that 23 times more likely to die from this disease than people who never smoked.

The figures are slightly lower for women - former women smokers have 5 times the risk of dying of lung cancer compared with never smokers. And current smokers are more than 13 times as likely to die from this disease.

It is clear that prevention is the best policy when it comes to lung cancer. And the way to prevent this disease is no smoking at all or at least, to give up smoking at the earliest.