Early and Late Signs of Lung Cancer

As with most cancers, the earlier you detect lung cancer the better your chances of survival. In fact, when it's caught in the first stages, there's an almost 50% survival rate after five years. This is a remarkable number considering the fact that overall, lung cancer has only a 15% survival rate.

So the earlier it's diagnosed the better.

And that's why being aware of the signs of lung cancer can mean the difference between surviving and becoming a statistic.

The Early Signs

Since the early signs of lung cancer can easily be mistaken for other conditions, it's often difficult to take them seriously. However, if you're experiencing a chronic cough that doesn't appear related to a virus or allergy, wheezing, chest pain, bouts of bronchitis, or a persistent fever ... it's time to pay attention.

Lung cancer symptoms are often related to the location of the lesions, which settle into the tissues of the lung first. That's why the early signs tend to reflect common cold, flu, and bronchial illnesses. Once the cancer moves beyond the bronchia, new symptoms arise.

The Later Signs

Once lung cancer has metastasize and moved beyond the bronchia, the signs can expand dramatically. For instance, if the cancer has spread to the brain, then common signs might include blurred vision, stroke, and migraines. As you can see, these are serious symptoms that could be related to any number of illnesses. The point is this: don't dismiss them.

In addition, signs such as depression, weight loss, fatigue, shoulder pain, difficulty swallowing, and hoarseness should be taken seriously.

When To See A Doctor

While you don't want to be running to your doctor every time you get the sniffles, if the above signs show themselves, especially if they're persistent, it's better to be safe than sorry. This is particularly true if you've been a smoker or are currently smoking, or if you've ever been exposed to asbestos over an extended period.

It only takes a few hours out of your life to make an appointment and visit your doctor. Here are the signs that should inspire action:
- Unexplained loss of weight
- Persistent shortness of breath
- Stubborn respiratory infections that keep coming back
- A chronic cough that has no apparent cause
- Pain in your chest
- Wheezing
- Fatigue (again, if it has no apparent cause)

The point to remember is that your immune system is busy fighting the cancer. This is why you may find yourself constantly run down and battling nagging infections. It's also one of the reason you may experience mood changes and irritability.

Conclusion

There is a caveat, unfortunately. Nearly a quarter of the people diagnosed with lung cancer never experience any symptoms at all. So while these lung cancer signs can serve as red flags, their absence doesn't necessarily mean everything is just fine. Another reason to see your doctor for an annual checkup.

Asbestosis Explained

Asbestosis is the name given to a lung disease caused by long term exposure to asbestos. It is a chronic inflammatory disease, and is most often seen as severe shortness of breath.

The disease itself is usually seen in people who are exposed to high levels of asbestos as a result of their occupations - people who mine, manufacturer products, handle or remove asbestos are most at risk of asbestosis.

The main symptom of asbestosis is shortness of breath, especially after periods of exertion. This effect may appear slowly and with little impact at first, but can gradually become more severe over time and even lead, in advanced cases of the disease, to an acute form in which respiratory or heart failure is possible. Clinically, those with asbestosis have a characteristic 'crackling' noise when drawing breath and 'clubbing' or thickening of the fingers. Signs often do not begin to appear until 5 years or more after the initial exposure to the material.

The shortness of breath is caused by inflammation and scarring of the lung tissue, which reduces the area available for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide needed for efficient breathing. It begins when tiny asbestos strands are breathed in and lodge deep inside the lungs. The natural defence mechanisms then try to destroy this foreign body, and this response causes inflammation around the asbestos strand. Because asbestos is extremely resistant to being broken down by the body the inflammatory reaction may be chronic. As time goes on the ingested fibres are covered in new fibrous tissue which is not as flexible and is thicker than usual, making gas exchanging more difficult and resulting in the decreased efficiency of the lungs. This fibrous tissue slowly increases in size as the body continues to fight the inhaled asbestos. The more fibres that have been inhaled, the higher is the potential for lung damage.

The treatment of asbestosis relies on managing its effects rather than curing it. Oxygen treatment is often given to relieve the shortness of breath, and nebulizers like those given to allergy and asthma sufferers can also help.

Effects of Lung Cancer Treatments - The Terrible Side Effects of Lung Cancer Therapies

The effects of lung cancer on the patient's body can differ according to the type and stage of the disease. However, studies are now focused towards the impact of treatments intended to cure the disease in patients. Although these have been recognized as temporary effects only, it still does produce enough good to the health of the patients.

What Are The Effects of Lung Cancer Treatments

Since the treatment for the disease is essential to keep the cancer cells under control, several patients have overlooked the possible harm it can bring to their health. These are some of the more common treatment options for lung cancer.

1) Surgical Treatment

Effects of lung cancer treatment such as surgeries can often bring in more harm to the patient. Since it is a major operation, it exposes your chest area into the possibility of collecting air and fluid into it.

Among the side effects known for lung cancer patients who have recently undergone surgery is difficulty in turning over, deep breathing, or even coughing. Since patients typically go through these activities, recovery might be slow.

Activities such as deep breathing or coughing are essential elements in recovery since they enable extra air or fluid out of your lung area.
Among the most common conditions cited shortly after undergoing lung cancer surgery include pain in your chest area or arms, and shortness of breath. It might need a week or two before a patient can find relief from such side effects.

2) Chemotherapy

When it comes to the side effects produced by this type of treatment for lung cancer, it varies according to the type and amount of drugs given the patient.
The hazard comes in since chemotherapy does not solely target cancer cells, but also affect normal cells as well. Below are common side effects experienced by patients treated with chemotherapy:
• vomiting/nausea
• feeling of fatigue
• presence of mouth sores
• hair loss

3) Radiation Therapy

The effects of lung cancer treatments such as radiation therapy stems from the fact that, like chemotherapy, it affects your normal cells. As opposed to the type of drug used in chemotherapy, this one depends on the particular part of the body being treated and the amount of dosage.

Common side effects include the following: sore or dry throat, hard time swallowing, changes in the skin of the area of treatment, appetite loss, headaches, problems with memory retention, etc.

4) Photodynamic Therapy

This particular therapy sets its limits on the normal routine activities of a patient who has undergone this treatment. For six weeks or more proceeding the treatment, the patient's skin and eyes becomes hypersensitive to light.

Therefore, direct contact with sunlight must be avoided if possible, even indoors. Hence, protective clothing must be worn if the patient were to go outside.

Other entailing conditions of photodynamic therapy include difficulty swallowing, coughing, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing.

Although the conditions cited above are often considered temporary, they must not be taken lightly. Instead, you need to see your doctor if you notice some of the side effects of lung cancer treatments continue to persist.

Lung Cancer Warning Signs - Early Detection of Lung Cancer Can Save Your Life

Early detection of lung cancer warning signs - or any other types of illnesses - is crucial in helping to find a cure for the disease. Indeed, the earlier one is able to find out about the disease, the better chances they have for combating the illness.

Lung cancer warning signs are similar to recognizing the symptoms of the disease. Hence, having enough knowledge of other conditions associated with this illness would be helpful.

Below is a list of lung cancer warning signs you should be keeping a close eye on:
• Persistent Coughing
• Presence of blood or mucus when coughing
• Loss of appetite resulting to weight loss
• Feeling of shortness of breath
• Pneumonia, bronchitis, or other respiratory-related illness
• Constant pain in the chest, back, or neck
• Uncharacteristic fever

You need to pay close attention to any changes in your body though, since most of the symptoms are not evident until they have reached the advanced stage.
Once you have determined these symptoms, there are essential steps and further information you need to know.

Spread of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is caused by the presence of cancer cells. These abnormal cells continue to divide on their own without following a particular order or pattern. Because of this nature in the cells, they have the potential to destroy the neighboring tissues of the body

In fact, they can also develop into a malignant tumor which can invade your bloodstream and cripple the lymphatic system. The process known as metastasizing is responsible for the spread of cancer cells such that the initial cancer tumor can cause the growth of new tumors in various parts of the body.
In terms of determining the rate at which these cancer cells spread, it largely depends on the type of cells. But on average, tumor growth can happen in a span of a few months.

When To Consult A Doctor

As soon as you notice any of the symptoms listed above, it is best to meet with your doctor immediately. This will allow them to make diagnosis or assess your condition. Furthermore, the earlier you act on any lung cancer warning signs or symptoms, the more capable you are at preventing it from getting worse. Immediate consultation with your doctor will enable them to further investigate the reason for such symptoms to exclude other health conditions.

Below is a list of what is recognized as late-stage lung cancer symptoms. One needs to work together with their physician to avoid reaching this stage:
• Inexplainable feeling of fatigue
• Reduced appetite
• Aches in your joints,bones, or constant headaches
• Bone fractures that are not brought about by injury
• Swelling on your face or neck
• Abnormalities in your neurologic conditions

Tests for Lung Cancer

Once you have seen with your doctor, the following tests are conducted to diagnose you:
1) Chest x-ray: This is mostly done for patients with complaints on excessive coughing and shortness of breath.
2) CAT Scan: This method of scanning in such areas as chest, head, abdomen, or pelvis helps assess the size of a tumor or evaluate how farther it has spread.
3) Bronchoscopy: In this method, your physician creates a direct visualization of your airways after numbing medications or sedations are administered.
4) PET Scan: This tool is used for assessing the tumor, which also utilize a chemical known as radionuclide. As soon as your first lung cancer warning signs become evident, it is best to undergo this test to help prevent the rapid growth of tumors.

The 4 Stages of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is a disease that is very hard to cure with conventional medicine. About 80% of all cases of newly diagnosed lung cancer are the non-small cell type (NSCLC). A majority of these patients will have inoperable disease on the basis of distant metastases or locally advanced disease. For the remaining patients with early stage disease as well as selected patients with locally advanced disease, surgery remains the best hope for cure.

Less than 15% of all patients can presently be expected to be cured of their disease. The changes that a patient has of being cured depends of the stage he/she is at. There are 4 stages of lung cancer and each stages requires different treatments, although none of these treatments unfortunately is very effective. Doctors may use several tests to accurately stage a lung cancer, including laboratory tests, X-rays, CT scans, bone scans, and MRI scans.

The 4 stages of lung cancer are


1) Stage 1 disease - Patients that have this early stage typically have no symptoms and most are cured with primary surgical excision. The tumors are mostly found on a routine chest radiograph. Nowadays many tumors are detected while they are still very small with computed tomography (CT). Morbidity and mortality increase with higher stages of disease and extended resections. The overall five-year survival for patients with completely resected stage I NSCLC is approximately 75%.

2) Stage 2 disease - Patients with T1-2N1 represent a small subset in the spectrum of this disease, usually comprising less than 10% of patients coming to surgery. The overall five-year survival of patients with Stage 2 tumors is approximately 50-60%. In this stage the tumors also start to invade the mediastinal pleura, fat, nerves, and pericardium, but not the major mediastinal vessels or organs.

3) Stage 3 disease - The preffered treatment for for patients in Stage 3 A is complete resection via lobectomy with mediastinal lymph node dissection. Patients with left upper lobe tumors. have the best prognosis of all, with five-year survival rates as high as 42% when completely resected. Computed Tomography (CT) scanning 5 year survival rate is approximately 30% following complete surgical resection. Patients with Stage 3 B are considered inoperable. The five-year survival for patients with T4 (carina) N0 tumors undergoing tracheal sleeve pneumonectomy has been reported to approach 20%.

4) Stage 4 disease - Surgery for this stage is only limited for young, healthy patients with a solitary site of metastatic disease, and an easily resectable primary tumor contained within the chest. Five-year survival in these patients should approach 20%. Even if a cure is not obtained, survival is prolonged and quality of life improved.

Mesothelioma Chemotherapy - What Are the Six Commonly Used Chemotherapy Agents?

Mesothelioma cancer, can be treated by the use of anti cancer drug therapies. These anti cancer drugs act by inhibiting tumor growth through the blocking of cell division and multiplication. This mode of action also unfortunately affects other rapidly replicating cells in the body, cells of the hair and the lining of the intestine are particularly vulnerable, thus leading to the common side effects of anti cancer drugs like hair loss and nausea.

Mesothelioma is notoriously resistant to common anti cancer chemotherapy as result of some reasons. The cancer takes a long time to mature and show symptoms, by the time these symptoms appear the tumor will be well formed with a lot of layers of dead cells that the anti cancer drugs will find it difficult to penetrate, and also by the time a diagnosis of mesothelioma is made, most victims have but a short time left to live so the drugs do not have enough time to exert their maximal effect.

New drugs that have been designed to overcome these challenges and have fewer and lesser side effects include:

Alimta (Pemetrexed)

Alimta was approved by The Food and Drug Administration in February 2004 as a new anti cancer drug for the treatment of mesothelioma. Its mode of action is by inhibiting the creation of thymidine and purine , two enzymes that are vital to cell growth. This stops the mesothelioma cancer cells from multiplying at a very fast rate. Its side effects include nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, mouth sores and low blood counts. Patients are usually placed on vitamin B12 and folic acid supplements to reduce the severity of the side effects.

Cisplatin

This is a platinum-based chemotherapy drug that prevents the reproduction of DNA and is used to treat a number of different cancers including mesothelioma. The FDA approved it in 1978 to treat a number of cancers, and has proved somewhat effective on mesothelioma. Cisplatin however has some very serious side effects which inlude ear damage{ototoxicity} leading to hearing loss, kidney damage, nerve damage, and nausea, and so some oncologist are very reluctant to prescribe this drug to patients.

Tomudex (Raltitrexed)

This drug prevents cancer cells from replicating the DNA that is needed for multiplication and spread of cancer. This drug can be used as a monotherapy or in combination with onconase.

Vinorelbine

This anticancer drug was initially approved by the FDA in 1994 for the treatment of small lung cancer and breast cancer, but recent studies have shown that it could also be effective against mesothelioma, and the drug has little side effect profile. It can also be used in combination with some other chemotherapy drugs.

Onconase (Ranpirnase/P-30 Protein)

Onconase is a chemical taken from the eggs of the leopard frog that blocks protein synthesis which leads to blockage of tumor cell division and growth. It has shown promise as becoming one of the more effective drugs for treating cancer, as survival rates for one and two years are 34.4% and 21.6 respectively, as opposed to six to eight months without treatment.

Veglin

This is an anticancer chemotherapy drug that blocks the growth of tumors in people suffering from lymphoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, and colon and lung cancers. Many oncologists believe that it could be effective in fighting mesothelioma, as Veglin inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a substance that is usually found in very high concentrations in mesothelioma patients. VEGF helps tumors grow new blood vessels which help to supply nutrients to the new tumor cells. This drug inhibits this process thus starving the new cancer cells of their much needed nutrients, leading to their ultimate death.

Asbestosis and Mesothelioma - The Legal Implications

Asbestosis is a devastating disease; it comes as a result of inhaling asbestos fibres earlier in life. It happens early on in life but there is a long latency period and symptoms don't normally begin appearing until later on in life around 50 or 70, making the illness all the more distressing.

Mesothelioma is another by-product of asbestos, a rare form of cancer that affects the cells that make up the lining around major organs like lungs, the heart and the abdomen. Pleural Mesothelioma, the form that affects the lungs is the most common variation of the disease.

Obviously being diagnosed with Mesothelioma is a distressing revelation and affects many who were exposed to Asbestos earlier in life; Asbestos has now rightfully been outlawed on any business' premises. For those who have been affected though there are options for them to consider getting compensation for their suffering.


Businesses who have failed to protect their employees from asbestos poisoning have been prosecuted since 1929, in recent years the number of prosecutions has risen considerably in recent years as more people have been diagnosed with asbestos related illnesses.

The compensation process involves the businesses the sufferer worked for at the time they were exposed to asbestos, the money that is won via these claims is taken from the business' insurance policies. The problem for many sufferers is that the company they worked for at the time may have closed down by the time symptoms and court cases begin, this is not a problem as many legal specialists are able to trace the relevant insurance company even for collapsed companies from years ago.
Some people may think that claiming compensation is opportunistic, in some cases other than this then that may be argued but with Mesothelioma the financial and emotional burden is too great to pass on any assistance even in the form of a compensation cheque.

Ongoing medical costs and potential loss of earnings affecting family expenses would make an already trying time even worse and so seeking legal advice once diagnosed is of paramount importance. You need to be clear of when you were exposed to asbestos and who is responsible for it also. Once your legal council is satisfied that you were made unaware of the dangers of working with asbestos or in an environment with asbestos then the sooner they will be able to proceed with your claim.

Two Important Steps That Will Help You to Cope With a Diagnosis of Mesothelioma

Receiving a diagnosis of mesothelioma is undoubtedly one of the most devastating and harrowing experiences one can pass through in life, it is like receiving a certain death sentence. All patients will pass through the classical stages of grief, the initial shock followed by denial, then anger, then depression, and finally acceptance of the grim reality of the terminal disease.

This mix of powerful emotions can overwhelm even those that claim to be very strong individuals. This disease often leaves its victims in a very fragile state of mind.

Even the most compassionate and understanding people can be frustrated by the mortality of mesothelioma, and they can become worn out emotionally very quickly if they do not take steps to help them cope with the disease. Mesothelioma diagnosis is a tragic and devastating revelation, and these are some steps that you can take to help you cope with the disease.


1-Try and overcome the fear and sorrow that usually comes with the diagnosis of a terminal illness. Reach out to your friends, strengthen your religious faith, locate and interact with other victims of the disease to learn how they are coping and share experiences with each other. Also draw strength from within your innate powerful resources that can only manifest when you are facing an almost impossible situation like this.

Face this certain mortality with dignity and poise. Fear and hopelessness will only rob you of what little time you have left, and hinder any positive decisions you might have to make.

2-You still control your life, make a choice to make a difference. Try and pursue legal action against those who knowingly put you at risk of developing this cancer, they purposefully exposed you to asbestos exposure to maximize profit and they must pay for their actions. This will serve justice to a callous and very selfish industry.

Also the monetary compensation you will get will give you the assurance that even after you might have passed away, your family will not have to suffer financially. This will also help you to face inevitable mortality with a lot of courage. So contact a mesothelioma Lawyer as soon as possible.