We Need to Know Everything about Lung Cancer - Essay Example

Lung Cancer Introduction Recently I went through a quote which made me laugh because of its irony and itgoes like “My mother died of lung cancer last year. I felt helpless. As an economist I thought - What can I do?” Since we are breathing in a society where cancer has turn into a nuisance and follows us like piranhas, we need to know everything that is there about cancer, especially lung cancer. Before going forward with the speech we would like to brief you on lung cancer it is a disease that occurs because of the unstoppable cell growth in tissues of the lung, which is a description of malicious lung tumor. So today we would like to present and explain you about the causes of lung cancer, how it comes to you, how to prevent it and what type of diet is healthy for lungs. Main Claim 1: First we will be discussing the causes of lung cancer. Our first sub point is the genetic reason that leads to lungs cancer. According to Cancer.org (American Cancer Society) it is abnormal gene that results in cancer and not the cancer itself, which proceeds straight from mutation, also known as gene defect. These mutations are further divided into inherited and somatic mutations. Inherited mutations are present in every cell, as a result of being passed into a generation through sperm or egg. Whereas, acquired mutation is not inherited from parent to a child, rather develop in a person’s life from one cell and spread out in the new ones and according to the same site the statistics shows that around 5 – 10% cancers are all inherited. Our second sub point concerns carcinogenic reasons for development of lung cancer; these include smoking, air pollution and radon gas or radiation. According to the article ‘Lung cancer and other causes of death in relation to smoking’ cigarettes contain over 60 deadly chemicals such as radioisotopes, nitrosamine and benzopyrene. These carcinogens assist in building of cancerous growth in revealed tissues, besides it is observed that increase in smoking is directly linked to increase in the chances of developing lungs cancer. On the other hand, non-smokers are also vulnerable to cancer as a result of passive smoking (Doll, Richard and Hill, 1956). Not only smoking, but according to International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) air pollution has led to 223,000 deaths in 2010 and the sources of air pollution includes residential heating and cooking, fumes from vehicles, agriculture emission and power generations. To support this statistics and claim of IARC, World Health organization (WHO) cancer agency’s deputy head Diana Loomis has also claimed that after reviewing of studies the agency conclude that the threat of lung cancer in people who are exposed to air pollution have indecently increased (reuters.com). Apart from these two major clauses of lung cancer, according to a journal New England Journal of Medicine odorless and colorless gases such as radon and radiation are also responsible for formation of lung diseases, especially cancer. Now that we have given a basic review of how genetics and carcinogenic factors lead to lung cancer, we would like to explain the stages or how lung cancer comes to you. Main Claim 2: The stages of lung cancer depend on its classification. Our first sub point is the stages of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC). According to Cancer.org, the growth and spread of NSCLC is described by a method proposed by American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), which is TNM staging system. TNM stands for tumor, nodes and metastasized. On the basis of TNM, doctor diagnoses the stage the patient is on of lung cancer. The first stage is where cancer is found only in the lungs area and it is small. The cancer is equal to or less than 3 cm at this stage and has not invaded deeper into the lungs. In the second stage, the cancer is partially disturbing the airways and is no more than 5 cm and has spread out into major bronchus. The third stage proposes that the cancer is more than 7 cm, has attacked major bronchus, spread into airways enough to damage the lungs. The last and the fourth stage shows that cancer has spread to the other parts of lung and its cells are found in surrounding areas of heart and lungs fluids. Our second sub point is the small cell lung cancer and its two stages known as limited stage and extensive stage. According to lungcancer.org cancer is found only on one particular side of chest, meaning it is developed into close nodes and lymph or just single part of the lungs. Whereas, extensive stage illustrates that the cancer has spread into other parts of the chest as well as whole body. However, (AJCC) has executed a more deep staging system for small cell lung cancer by using roman numbers and letters just like in non-small cell lung cancer. Now that we have deal with the stages of lung cancer on the basis of their types that is non-small and small cell lung cancer, I would like to make sure that we all know about the nutrients that a lung cancer patient or any healthy person should intake in order to achieve and maintain good lungs. Main Claim 3: Here we will be listing down the food that a lung cancer patient should consume in order to achieve healthy life. Our first sub point is the solid foods that patients should take which includes vegetables, fruit and meat. According to healthy-diet-healthy-you.com the vegetables that needed to be consumed by lung patients include should be bright in color such as green vegetables, carrot or garlic. In meet we can include seafood and egg. In fruits we can consume apples, cantaloupe and avocado. Moreover, Indian spices and curries should also be consumed as they fight against cancerous cells. Requirement of such solid foods is necessary because it include vitamin C and D. Our second sub point is about the liquids that shall be consumed and according to the healthy-diet-healthy-you.com soy milk and green tea should be drink on regular basis and for even better result they should be drank at least twice a day as it helps lower the risk of lung cancer by 18%. Since, green tea consist of natural herbs, they are far more effective than other fluid intake. Conclusion: Although I have tried to cover this topic from every aspect, this is still not enough to give a big picture, However, we can prepare our self against the threat of being subjected to lung cancer knowing its major causes, how many stages are included in this illness and what nutrients to intake in order to achieve greater benefit and healthier life. To give an overview of our speech, let me give a summarized account of my topic. We discussed that causes of lung cancer are divided into two categories that are genetic; meaning it is inherited and carcinogenic which means developing lung cancer because of external environmental reasons. Then we moved on to stages of lung cancer which was again categorized on the basis of the cancer type that are non-small and small cell lung cancer and in the last we explained about the solid food and liquid that should be intake by lung cancer patients to reduce or control the disease We all know that everybody thinks that they knows about lung cancer and everybody thinks they know how to deal with it; however, it is beneficial to ‘really’ know how to deal with it, before it’s too late! Bibliography Doll, Richard, and A. Bradford Hill. "Lung cancer and other causes of death in relation to smoking." British medical journal 2.5001 (1956). Wagoner, Joseph K., et al. "Radiation as the cause of lung cancer among uranium miners." New England Journal of Medicine 273.4 (1965). “Heredity and Cancer”. http://www.cancer.org/index Kelland, Kate and Nebehay, Stephanie “Air pollution a leading cause of cancer - U.N. agency”. http://www.reuters.com/. (2013). “Lung Cancer Diet Strategies to Make Lung Cancer Go Up in Smoke”. http://www.healthy-diet- healthy-you.com/Lung_Cancer_Diet.html. “Types and Staging of Lung Cancer”. http://www.lungcancer.org/. . Read More