Lungs are the main organs of respiration. There are two in number: one on the right and the other on the left. In the lung occurs the alveolar gas exchange.
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Between lungs, pleural lungs and cavity chest walls are established mutual relationships, which provide respiratory mechanics.

Lung size and weight varies with age, sex, individual, expiration or inspiration. The child is more developed lower lobe and the transverse diameter is the largest, unlike the adult is predominantly vertical diameter.

In a normal adult, in the borderland between expiration and inspiration, lungs have an average of following dimensions: diameter 25 cm vertical, sagittal diameter at the base of 15 cm, diameter in the transverse, base 10 cm. These dimensions depend not only on the body size, but also on the shape and size of the chest.



The average weight of lungs in child not breathing is about 50 g and 90 g for the child to breathe. Two lungs in adults weigh approximately 1200 g, the right being slightly heavier than the left. Also, men are slightly more capacious lungs and heavier than in women.

The consistency and color

The consistency of the lungs is soft and very elastic foam. At birth the lungs are red and pink after the first breath. The infant not breathing, lungs are gray-white and placed in a beaker of water fall to the bottom, unlike the lungs that breathing and floating to the surface. This is a great forensic value to the diagnosis if the child was born dead or died after breathing.

In adult lungs color is gray and blackish deposits show as flawed environments of coal particles, silica, iron, etc.., Reticuloendotelial of lung tissue is charged with these particles, giving in some cases Pneumoconiosis: anthracnose, silicosis, sidereal. Deposit of dust particles varies according to different portions of the lung: is more abundant, the top portion and cord, where breathing process is lower.

Lung cancer is a disease that can be prevented, being one of the few malignancies with this feature. Over 85% of all cancers occur in patients with a long history of smoking. Therefore, experts believe that the best way to prevent lung cancer is to avoid smoking. Passive smoking is also almost as dangerous. Because smoking is a vice that addictive, quitting smoking is difficult to achieve. However, intense campaigns anti-smoking seems low in recent years, the percentage of smokers.



Doctors, mainly the family, have an important role in helping smokers to give up the habit because they are the ones that come most often in contact with others. Currently available a wide range of smoking cessation methods, proved the most effective ones in which group therapy is combined with the use of nicotinic patches and behavioral changes.
The most important methods are designed to reduce smoking:

- Educating the population about the hazards induced by smoking and the realization that these dangers are real and that, for many years, lung cancer lasts leading causes of mortality in malignancy;
- Tightening legislation to regulate smoking in public places;

- Increase taxes on vice;
- Advising patients about effective methods of smoking and failing to integrate them into mutual support groups.

Human body is unique, and therefore treatment is the same!

What means the word treatment?

Treatment - methods fully done to fight disease and trying to be cured. Treatment calls on therapeutic principles, doctors adapt them to the best way to current understanding of each case. There are different medical treatments, using drugs and various physical means (kineziterapie, radiotherapy, tennalism) and surgical treatments, with various instruments and different ways of anesthesia.
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Different types of treatment – There are four different types of treatment, after their purpose:
- Curative treatments are taking place in several phases: treatment procedures and intensive initially, followed if necessary by a maintenance treatment, less difficult, but often longer.
- On measures to palliative treatments can be used when a serious illness, cancer for example, approaching catastrophe, in order to enable the patient to live in the least unpleasant
- Preventive treatments seek to prevent a disease by vaccination example, or to suppress a risk factor (smoking or fighting hypercholesterolemia).
- Symptomatic treatments aimed at relieving symptoms of disease without, however, to fight the causes or nature of the disease, prescription of analgesics, which relieve pain, is an example of this.
Synonym: medication, therapy.



Cancer is a group of abnormal cells. It is known as tumor (malignant), which grows without being controlled. Cancerous tumors invade and destroy surrounding tissue. Not all tumors are cancerous (there are benign tumors too). Benign tumors, which are not cancerous, do not invade and does not damage tissue. A benign tumor may grow, however, very much. Cancerous tumors can spread cancer cells to other parts of the body, a phenomenon called metastasis, unlike benign tumors, which do not spread this way.
Causes: For a form of cancer to occur, there must be something that hit a cell nucleus. Some people are born with a predisposition for cancer. Their cells may be more vulnerable to any disease that leads to cancer. For others, the disease comes after for years have been exposed to substances that cause cancer. Tobacco, regardless of source, is bad. Certain chemicals, unprotected sun exposure and radiation can cause serious illnesses.

- Lung cancer: cough that persists for more than 2 to 3 weeks, with spitting of blood.



It is a frequent form of cancer that produces niche with bloody expectorant, rarely haemoptysis, dyspnea, sensation of chest oppression, sometimes stabbing sensations. First is dry cough, hoarseness and feeling of lung appears busy. The patient is weak.

The most important factor in the case of lung cancer is smoking. Counts the quantity of cigarettes smoked per day, but some get sick and those who do not smoke but are in the environment with cigarette smoke. Both tobacco and the cigarette wrapper causes. Other contributing factor is the inhalation of harmful substances and atmospheric air pollution with carcinogenic substances (smoke removed by baskets plants, exhaust gases).

Attention! Lung cancer rate is spreading fast with distance.

Cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco are made from dried tobacco leaves, but contain other ingredients for flavor. Over 4000 known chemicals have been identified in tobacco and cigarette smoke. Of these, over 60 are known as carcinogenic. Such as:
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-Tar - viscous liquid containing most of carcinogens
-Benzene - Industrial solvent, which comes from crude oil
-Arsenic - known mainly as the cause of skin cancer and lung. It appears that arsenic from tobacco leaves is one of the major carcinogens in cigarettes.
-Cadmium - used to manufacture batteries
-Formaldehyde - used to hold corpses
-Polonium-210 - radioactive element
-Chromium - used for the manufacture of paints and alloys
-1,3-butadiene - used rubber manufacturing
-Polycyclic - aromatic hydrocarbons
-Acrolein - last used as chemical weapons



Most dangerous substances in tobacco smoke are found in low levels. But over the months and years, it accumulates, reaching high amounts in the body. For this reason, the risk of cancer and other diseases increases with the amount of tobacco consumed daily and the number of years the person smokes.

In the early 1960s, researchers of a large American tobacco companies have made a disturbing discovery: Smoking can cause lung cancer. In public company claimed that cigarettes were 100% safe ( "healthy"). Behind closed doors, their men of science have sought ways to remove components causing cancer (carcinogens) in cigarettes.

As even a show of their documents, searching for cigarettes "healthy" was a failure from the start. The researchers found that burning tobacco produces a stunning collection of hazardous chemicals, regardless of how that increase is treated or packed. Simply put, the only cigarette "healthy" is one which does not come again.

Today, the secret was discovered. Everyone, starting with hospitals and to the high street child, knows that smoking causes lung cancer. In fact smoking causes most lung cancers, the disease that killed over 159,987 Americans in 2007. Specialists say that more than 80% of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking. Here's another way to highlight the danger: 30% of all cancers are directly attributable to smoking.

Even tobacco companies are now willing to admit the obvious. That is why now there is a label on all cigarette packages, saying "TOBACCO seriously harms your health" and there is also another label that is both comic and write some effects of excessive consumption of tobacco.



Health consequences of smoking are not limited to smokers. On the contrary, exposure to tobacco smoke - passive smoking - dramatically increasing the risk of lung cancer and heart disease among non-smokers, but also on the respiratory diseases in children.

Environmental tobacco smoke is the combination of main current (expired smoke of smoking) and secondary (smoke emanating from lit end of cigarette). Exposure to ambient smoke is called involuntary or passive smoking. Two thirds of the smoke emanating from a lit cigarette is not inhaled by the smoker, but are released into the air and contaminate the air. Thus, environmental tobacco smoke contains 2 times more nicotine and tar and 5 times more carbon monoxide than the smoke inhaled by the smoker.



There is no risk level for exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Studies have shown that even low levels of smoke can be harmful. The only way to truly protect nonsmokers from exposure to tobacco smoke is full and definitive renunciation smoking in enclosed spaces. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, ventilation of rooms and ventilation can not completely eliminate exposure to cigarette smoke.

Health is the general condition of a person in all aspects. Being healthy is the most important thing for anyone. That is why we should follow some strategies for staying healthy and to improve it: Social activity refers to the fact that personal health depends on the social structure of someone's life. Having a good social life can lead to a healthy life, because the brain receives positive information and the Immune system works just well. Hygiene is the practice of keeping your body clean to prevent illness and infections. Hygiene practice includes: bathing, brushing and flossing teeth, washing hands and so on. When we talk about stress management we can think about relaxation techniques to prevent stress to interfere in our social life. Relaxation techniques can be: abdominal breath, we should do sports, we should be optimistic etc. And finally, health care refers to the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the medical, nursing and allied health professions.
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Not having care of us and our health problems can occur. For example, we can have certain diseases such as: colds or very serious diseases (such as cancer, leukemia, AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, heart disease, epilepsy, etc.)



If we make a top 5 of deadly diseases spread throughout the world, they would be:
1. heart disease - kills one million people in one year - in the U.S. and several million worldwide. And it is a fatal disease.

2. cancer - at least one million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year. Half of them will die within the next five years, that means 1,500 people per day, or one every minute. Many suffer from cancer, as have in their genes. But only 20% of cancers are a tribute to the inheritance. One in three people develop detectable cancers. The body is equipped to fight the disease, but this process relies heavily on nutrition.

3. shell-shock - kills more women than breast cancer and more men than prostate cancer.

4. diabetes - one of 20 of us will become sick from diabetes.

5. arthritis - 30 million of us have arthritis. Can you think happens to all people, but the average age of arthritis strikes is only 47 years.

Cancer may be of several types, such as breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, at the neck, stomach cancer, brain cancer etc.

When we think of lung cancer, most of us imagine that this disease affects men who smoke. In reality, the situation is different. Lung cancer causes death of more women than breast cancer, uterine and ovarian cancer in one place. Women who smoked in their youth and later dropped should not underestimate the risk of disease. In 2003, four cases of cancer in women, one was lung cancer. It is estimated that, in the U.S., over 70,000 women died from lung cancer, compared with 39,000 patients who lost their lives due to breast cancer, according to American Cancer Society.



The most common symptoms are shortness of breath, coughing (including coughing up blood), and weight loss. As a small knot makes a woman to submit immediately to the doctor, the same should happen with cough. This symptom may indicate various problems, from simple colds to cancer of the lungs. Those who cough frequently, to wake up from sleep coughing, breathing hard or, worse, that coughing up blood must go to see a doctor.

Malignant tumors, as opposed to benign tumors, continue their growth, spreading in the same organ, in neighboring organs or even in distant parts of the when the malignant cells travel through the lymphatic or the blood system. The spread of the tumors is termed as metastasis.

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In order for adequate treatment decision to be made, cancers have been staged. For non-small cell lung cancer there are 4 stages which show how much the tumor has spread. In stage one the tumor is localized within the lung. In the second and third stage the tumor has already spread outside the lungs, but the metastases are confined to the chest area.

In stage 4 the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body such as liver, adrenal glands, bones or brain. The stages are further broken down. Stage 3A lung cancer is considered to be a locally advanced stage meaning that the cancer has not spread outside the chest area, but has spread to the lymph nodes. Stage 3b and 4 are considered to be advanced lung cancer, which can no longer be cured, but they are considered treatable, as treatment options aimed at controlling symptoms still exist.

As opposed to stage 3B, stage 3A can still be approached with the surgical option. Although by this time the cancer has spread to lymph nodes on the same part of the body as the original mass, tumors are still confined to the chest area and can still be removed through surgery. The treatment options for stage 3 lung cancer are surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy or a combination of the three. The usual course taken is making use of the surgical option which is followed by either chemotherapy or chemotherapy and radiation therapy together.

Stage 3A and 3B lung cancer have poor prognosis. The five year survival rate, which is the standard prognosis for lung cancer, is smaller than 25% for both stage 3A and stage 3B with a significantly smaller percentage for stage 3B. So how can the question what is stage 3 lung cancer be answered? Stage 3 lung cancer means that lung cancer is already at a more advanced stage with tumor no longer confined in the lung, but confined to the chest area.

The spread of the tumors to the lymphatic system brings it closer to stage 4 which is also termed as the final stage, because at this stage it thought that there are no longer options for healing. Stage 3 lung cancer can be viewed as positive because chances for healing still exist, but it can also be viewed as negative as the chances of healing are diminished as compared to the previous stages. It is important for patients to know this information as treatment expectations are important and are considered to affect the course of treatment.

Cancer is a disruption in the normal process of cell growth. In the case of lung cancer a number of chemicals enter the body through cigarette smoke, they are deposited in the lungs and they are able to cause DNA changes which in turn can cause the disruption the cell growth process. This disruption mean that cells will divide and thus multiply faster leading to formation of masses or tumors. Tumors can be benign or malignant; the first ones are harmless, whereas the latter tend to grow and spread to continue their growth in an aggressive way spreading to other parts of the body.

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We rely on our body to give us signals when something goes wrong in its normal way of funcioning. Those signals are termed signs and symptoms and they help us to determine what has gone wrong and what can be done to fix it. However some illnesses do not show any symptoms early on, which makes them very difficult to diagnose and consequently to treat. Lung cancer is one of the diseases that doesn't show many symptoms in the early stages.

There are three symptoms to lung cancer that are considered to be the three main symptoms that can lead us to suspect lung cancer. These 3 symptoms are shortness of breath, persistent or painful cough and pain when breathing or coughing. These symptoms are common to many respiratory diseases which is why it is common for people to have these symptoms not to seek medical advice.

The shortness of breath that is associated with lung cancer is severe and chronic. The coughing associated with lung cancer is usually accompanied by discharges of phlegm, fluid or blood. Also, a tumor or more tumors in the lungs can cause pains in the body and those pains can usually be locates in the area below th ribs or in the shoulders.

There are other symptoms that can become apparent with lung cancer but they are common to other respiratory illnesses, symptoms such as wheezing, hoarseness or loss of voice, swelling int he face or neck and repeated infections. Also, weight loss, loss of appetite, tiredness, weakness and fatigue are also associated with lung cancer as well as other diseases.

The fact that most of the symptoms of lung cancer can be common to other respiratory diseases is not helpful, because often they are hardly recognized and because they often appear late in the evolution of the disease. However knowing the three main symptoms to lung cancer may be helpful in bringing more people to see medical advice. The sooner people are diagnosed the easier it is to treat and possibly to cure. Unfortunately lung cancers diagnosed in stages 3b and 4 have fewer treatment options and in their case treatment aims at controlling symptoms rather than at curing it.

Cancer is defined as an abnormal cell growth or a disruption the normal division and growth of cells. The aberant cell growth leads to the formation of masses or tumors which can be benign, in which case they are harmless, ot they can be malignant and invasive. In the lungs there can be 2 types of cancer depending on the appearance of malignant cells, non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. About 80% of lung cancers are non-small cell lung cancers and of those 30% are squamous cell lung cancers.

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Squamous cell lung cancers begin in the bronchial tubes and they usually show signs such as coughing up blood early on. There has been a decrease in the number of cases of this type of cancer, which has been attributed to the introduction of filtered cigarettes. If discovered in the early stages this type of cancer can be removed through surgery. Even when tumors are successfully removed through surgery the risk remains; there is a possibility that cancer may return.

It is possible that cancer cells remain behind the surgery; doctors try to prevent this by also removing healthy tissue from around the tumor or by recommending chemotherapy after surgery. Also it is possible for malignant cell to spread to the tissues of other neighboring organs or to travel through the lympahtic or blood system ta another, more distant part of the body. When this has happened the cancer becomes more difficult to treat, because therapies recommended have to be able to focus on several tumors, possibly even in several areas of the body. At the advanced stages the treatments no longer focus on healing but on alleviating symptoms.

Squamous cell lung cancers usually grow quicly and spread into surrounding tissues. If it spreads throught eh blood system tumors may apear in oragns like the liver, the adrenal glands, in the bones, as well as in the brain. Spreading to those organs may cause additional unpleasant symptoms, such as pain in the bones. If cancer has metastasied to the brain symptoms like difficulty with vision, weakness, headaches or seizures may occur.

Accurately diagnosing lung cancer is extremely important, because treatment options will differ greatly from one stage to another. Also knowing as much as possible about your illness is very important. Knowing the appropriate information can help you help yourself and your doctor when making his decisions. Also knowing the appropriate information is also important for your family, so that they know what to expect and how to give you the best care they can. Setting appropriate expectations is important especially in the later stages of lung cancer. Discussing expectations will be hard which is why support groups can prove to be very helpful for many cases.

Lung cancer is one of the deadliest diseases at the moment in the United States. The average survival rate for lung cancer is 5 years. Lung cancer is one of the silent types of cancer, because it often shows no symptoms in the early stages and the symptoms that do appear can be easily overlooked or misinterpreted as symptoms of other illnesses.

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Over 50% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed in the late stages 3b and 4, when there has already been a spread of the cancer and there are a number of tumors in the chest area or even in more distant areas. When this is the cases conventional treatment methods no longer aim a curing the cancer, but at controlling the symptoms. Lung cancer is most often discovered in the early stages either by accident or through screening tests. If discovered in the early stages, treatment options are aimed at healing.

However the 5 year survival rate prognosis is not good enough for many people, which is why they are looking for alternative treatments for lung cancer. Unfortunately many alternative or complementary treatments for lung cancer are not scientifically tested, which is why doctors have a hard time recommending them. Doctors currently work in the frame of evidence-based medicine, which means that treatment recommendations will be made solely based on the solid scientific research.

However a few alternative treatments have been looked at by scientific societies and based on a risk to benefit ratio a few of them have been deemed helpful in treating the symptoms of lung cancer. The risk to benefit ratio basically considers whether the benefits of a certain treatment or therapy would outweigh the risks. The alternative treatments favored from this point of view are acupuncture, hypnosis, massage therapy, meditation and yoga and they have been found to be beneficial for symptoms like anxiety, fatigue and shortness of breath, nausea and pain.

When recommending them most doctors would probably also inform their patients that these therapies do not have a solid scientific background but that practice has shown them to be helpful in some individuals and that their risks are smaller than the benefits they may bring.

But if you have found information about other alternative treatments for lung cancer it is best to discuss them with your doctors before you try them, especially if you are already undergoing traditional treatments. Some alternative treatments and this refers mainly to nutritional supplements may interfere with planned surgery or may decrease the effectiveness of chemotherapy or radiation treatment, thus putting you at bigger risk. Some complementary and alternative treatments aim simply at improving quality of life during lung cancer treatment, by easing side effects of the conventional treatments, by improving the immune system and by helping to keep strength.

Data shows that lung cancer is the biggest killer in the United States. But let's see how many people do die of lung cancer every year. Data will very from one statistic to another, but it appears that up to 160.000 people die of lung cancer each year and around 3 million people in the world.

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But let's see why so many people die from lung cancer and what it really is. The first thing to be said is that smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, 90% of the cases being attributed to smoking, and despite it being such a deadly condition the number of smokers seems to grow each year. It has been shown that in the recent years there has been a significant growth in the number of smokers in the female population.

However this does not explain why it is so deadly, only why so many people have the condition. Lung cancer is one of the silent illnesses. Unfortunately it shows very few signs in the early stages, when the best chances of curing it still exist. Some symptoms that may exist are persistent cough, shortness of breath, pain in the arms, shoulders, chest or back, repeated infections like pneumonia or bronchitis. Also unfortunately these symptoms are often attributed to other conditions and medical care is not sought immediately.

Because of the lack of symptoms or of the symptoms being overlooked many lung cancer cases, over 50% of them, are discovered in the late stages when the cancer has already spread outside the lungs. When lung cancer is discovered in the early stages it is often done by accident as the person is being investigated for a different health problem. Some of the early stage lung cancers are discovered through screening.

Lung cancer is a disruption in the normal process of cell growth, meaning that cells will divide and hence multiply at an increased rate resulting in the formation of masses or tumors. usually outside factors like for instance carcinogenic chemicals deposited in the lungs through smoking cause DNA damage, which in turn causes the initiation of the disruption and then of the abnormal growth.

In the earliest stage the cancer is confined to the lung which in most cases makes it suitable for surgery and if surgery is successful the person can be declared free from cancer. In the following stages the malignant cells spread outside the lungs forming tumors in other parts of the body, initially in the chest area and in the final stage in more distant parts of the body like liver, adrenal glands and brain.

The main factors responsible for producing the abnormal process of cell growth are smoking, second hand smoking, exposure to air pollutants, asbestos and other carcinogens, as well as repeated lung disease. However, the main risk factor remains smoking and if less people smoked the question 'how many people die of lung cancer every year' could be answered with entirely different numbers.

Lung cancer is responsible for many deaths in the United States. Here are a few interesting facts about lung cancer that we should all be aware off. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States. It is responsible for more deaths from cancer than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined. 30% of all cancer related deaths are attributed to lung cancer. 90% of the lung cancer cases diagnosed each year are due to smoking.

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Not all people who smoke will get lung cancer, but data show that quitting smoking reduces the chances of getting lung cancer by 80%. Up to 200.000 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States each year and up to 160.000 people will die from lung cancer each year. Living in an industrial area, where you are exposed to asbestos and carcinogens can lead to lung cancer.

The cases of lung cancer among women are rising, probably due to the increase in the number of women who smoke in the past years. Over 50 % of lung cancer cases are discovered in the late stages, when the tumors have spread to other organs in the chest area or throughout the body, which makes it very hard to cure and with a 5 year survival rate as low as 5 percent.

Lung cancer shows few signs and symptoms in the early stages of illness. The lung cancers diagnosed in the early stages are usually discovered by accident, while the person is being tested for a different health problem. Lung cancers discovered in the early and successfully treated through surgery, can recur either locally or in other parts of the body.

In stage 4 lung cancer treatment no longer aims at healing, but at controlling and alleviating symptoms. These are only a few interesting facts about lung cancer that most people should be aware off, because to put all of that simply in a few words, lung cancer is deadly, because it is most often discovered at a late stage and it can be prevented as it is most often caused by smoking, exposure to cigarette smoke or other carcinogens that can be avoided.

Knowing these simple facts should motivate each and every one of us to take all the possible measures to avoid getting lung cancer or to prevent it. Obviously preventing is far easier than treating. But how to get this message across? How to motivate people to listen to this information and do all that is possible to avoid risk factors? Unfortunately it is a hard question to answer, but that does not mean that awareness and prevention campaigns are not put in place all over the world with good results.