Lung Cancer Vaccine

Published on May 28 2010, in the categories: Prevention

Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the world. We all know this, but not much is being done about it. People continue smoking, the smoking industry is flourishing, funds for research are directed towards other types of cancer, where patients are not considered responsible for their own affection. The truth is that many people that have never smoked also develop this disease.
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Some research is however being done of course to reduce the incidence and death rates for lung cancer. Such a study claims to have reached a breakthrough discovery that saves people from lung cancer. At present this is just a treatment used in clinical trials but with great promise for a future cure. This treatment is the lung cancer vaccine, a vaccine that uses the immune system as a main ally.

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This was developed as a reply to the grim reality that most cancer cases are diagnosed in their last stages. This fact leaves very few options for a treatment, and little to none for a cure. Treatment can be undergone to alleviate symptoms but treatment like chemo can also have powerful side-effects by itself. A lung cancer vaccine is meant not just to prolong life or increase quality of life during treatment, but to cure the cancer entirely. Researchers are working at different types of vaccines, dosage and administration. A clinical trial conducted at Miami's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center involving 20 terminally ill people resolved in significantly reducing the cancer and prolonging the life of the patients with a few extra years. These results are not actually revolutionary and don't offer a real cure for the disease but new versions of the vaccine are tested year and there's been significant progress reported.

However, even at this stage the vaccine is already being approved as a certified treatment option in more countries around the world. Raising life expectancy and alleviating symptoms is also a significant accomplishment. The vaccine even shows some advantages to other standard types of treatments. One reason for this is that compared to chemotherapy, the vaccine has fewer side-effects because it is a form of protein that attacks only cancer cells and not healthy cells that divide quickly.

The first lung cancer vaccine was first approved in Cuba in 2008, 3 years or more before in United States, where it is kept more time in the stage of clinical trials. The name of the vaccine is CimaVax EGF. Ask your doctor for more details about it and the risks and opportunities it implies.

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The vaccine is sure to surprise us with more progress not too far away in the future and until then it is essential to prolong a patient's life as much as possible until a cure will be within reach.

Primary Secondary And Tertiary Prevention Of Lung Cancer

Published on May 28 2010, in the categories: Prevention

Preventing lung cancer means reducing the risk factors that enable cancer to develop. Reducing these factors means reducing cancer and morbidity. There are certain protective factors which help prevent and fight against the damages that risk factors have on the human body. Some of the risk factors cannot be avoided such as: genes that increase the risk of having cancer. Pollution is also an aspect that cannot be changed in a day. Though, most of the factors can be changed: smoking, developing healthier eating habits, exercising on a regular basis. People with pre-cancerous conditions and people with cancer have to take their medicine in order to get healthy.

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Cigarettes provoke a strong, heavy dependence and it is better to avoid it because it is so difficult to give up smoking one started. Health personnel have to be very committed to counseling the smokers in order to give up smoking. Smoking affects people around, especially in the family. Children are those who are the most sensitive to these aspects. For them if a parent is smoking it gives them a bad example and it makes them more vulnerable. Smoke can have a smell that can attract and intrigue at a certain point and for the kids it is not only the smoke, it is also the status and the behavior of the parent that influences them. Usually children respect and adore their parents and they want to copy each movement they see. In conclusion, parents should be well aware of these consequences and the results on their health and their children's.

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Former smokers are vulnerable to different types of cancer: lung, head and neck, esophagus, kidney, liver, pancreas, stomach and cervix. The reduction of cigarettes on the market is correlated with a longer life and lower lung cancer mortality rate. Smoke contains carcinogenic and genotoxic elements that prejudice one's life. This is the reason why smokers should receive various methods to stop smoking. Lately the medical industry and doctors have been concerned more with prevention and have developed all kind of ways to facilitate the process of quiting smoking. Joining clubs like church and other non smoker clubs can improve the way on sees and relates to life and consequently, to smoking.

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Society needs to prevent children from smoking. This condition starts from the family. If the child has access to these drug in the family, than it is difficult to stop the child from smoking even if there are laws that prohibit selling cigarettes to minors. Schools should have different programs to involve in students' lives and education in order to understand their problems and help them see the disadvantages of smoking. Making the children become more responsible of their lives by understanding the effects that smoking has in nowadays society can improve their chances of making the correct decisions for themselves and their families.

Prevention of lung cancer is highly successful because the majority of lung cancer cases are due to smoking and this means that it is in our power to become healthier.

Primary Secondary And Tertiary Prevention Of Lung Cancer

Published on May 28 2010, in the categories: Prevention

Primary prevention refers to relative healthy persons which do not have invasive cancer and they have an average risk to developing cancer. Secondary prevention refers to patients that have an early diagnose of cancer, with no symptoms. Tertiary prevention refers to the measures taken by patients with cured initial cancer.

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The major risk factors to avoid are: smoking, polution, sedentary life, alcohol, radon exposure, and exposure to other harmful substances at the workplace; the intake of different supplements can increase the risk of developing cancer.

Solid evidence shows that smoking provokes cancer and avoiding smoking results in a lower mortality rate from lung cancer and not only. Long term smoking cessation proves to be very efficient and increases the quality and duration of life. High intensity smokers that take beta carotene supplements have higher probability to develope lung cancer and other diseases. Supplements are indicated under specialised surveillance and in pre-determined quantities. It is better to use the vitamins from natural food and ensuring a variety in the diet.

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Lung cancer can be prevented by applying beter environmental and work politics. 10% of lung cancer cases are linked to work substance exposure. These substances are: asbestos, radon, tar, arsenic, nickel, chromium and others. Companies should ensure a healthy working environment because the life and health of the employees and their families cannot be quantified in money. Developed countries fight for a better working enviroment by considering special techniques to reduce and protect people from harmful substances.

Air polution is poorly associated with lung diseases but developed countries started taking all kind of measures to protect their citizens. Polution is linked more to climate change and the ozone damages which disables the protection against powerful rays from the sun. However, people which have smoked or which have lung diseases, and not only them, should avoid walking during hot summer afternoons.

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Diet prevents cancer. People who eat more fruits and vegetables have a higher rate of remaining healthier for a longer period of time. Those who have lower intake rate of vegetables and especially fruits are at risk of developing some sort of cancer. The micronutrients found in fruits help the body fight the diseases and enable the body cells to reproduce in a healthier environment. This helps the cells to avoid the series of errors that can lead to lung cancer. Studies show that underweight people are more exposed to lung cancer than people with a normal body weight.

Regular exercise prevents lung cancer. Long walks in the natue, especally when the air is fresher helps the lungs to clean themselves and eliminate toxicity. Regular exercise of about 30-40 minutes a day can be highly effective. Exercises should be done when the air is cleaner, very early in the morning or when the cars stop their rush.

The drug called iloprost prevents lung cancer especially in people who used to smoke. This is a drug from prostagladin class. Iloprost improves the health of former smokers and prevents cancer. Actelion markets present iloprost drug under the name Ventavis.

Lung Cancer Awareness

Published on May 17 2010, in the categories: lung cancer, Prevention

It's no surprise that lung cancer is the number one killing cancer out there. Deaths from lung cancer represent about one sixth of all cancer related deaths in USA. But just how much are people aware of this terrible disease and how much does this weigh in their eyes compared to smoking the occasional cigarette? Like it or not smoking caused 80 to 90% of all lung cancers and you can either be a smoker or just exposed to second hand smoke to be under great risk.
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Each year almost 200 000 people are diagnosed with this type of cancer and almost 90 000 cases resolve in death. There are many public campaigns out there calling to all smokers to think twice before reaching for a new cigarette and many social campaigns are directly aimed are limiting the public space in which people are allowed to smoke.

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The main object of these campaigns is actually to raise awareness on the subject but also to make people more sensitive to it. We have been hearing so much about the evil of smoking but how much has it really reached deeper into our conscience? Wearing ribbons, no smoking signs and so on have not affected the cigarette industry in a significant way. People still buy cigarettes though the number of people also paying for treatments to quit smoking has also increased. This means that being informed and finding more and more information about the risks of smoking is not entirely useless.

So what should we all know about lung cancer? Which exactly are the risk factors for lung cancer? These are smoking, second hand smoke, radon gas in the home and risks also grow as we become older. There are easy ways to prevent the occurrence of this cancer. The most famous one is quitting smoking of course. Avoid second hand smoke and you should also avoid unnecessary medical tests which include x-ray exposure.

The methods for treatment depend on the stage and type of cancer and these are things to be decided with the oncologists far beyond the point when awareness is your biggest concern.

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The most important impact of awareness campaigns is the appeal to people to be more responsible for their lives and that of those around. Support groups, NGOs, family members of patients, media channels who support the cause are just some examples of the vast network of organizations and individuals trying to combat this cancer and together with it the ignorance of many people, grown-ups and adolescents.

Many events and many festivals devoted to raising awareness yearly take place and people come wearing ribbons and bearing personal stories about the disease. Step by step these are bound to at least prevent future generations from taking up this terrible habit of smoking.

Lung Cancer Preventions

Published on Apr 02 2010, in the categories: Prevention

For any type of disease, there are also the ways of prevention for that disease and we have faced during the last years many campaigns which were carried out by different organizations, governments, medical centers for showing the causes and effects of different illnesses and also the means for preventing them .
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Lung cancer has killed circa 1 million people each year in the last few years and the number of people who get diagnosed with this kind of affection is rising annually and the mortality rate is very high and the survival rates are extremely poor . More and more people ignore the fact that this disease could happen to anyone and it could kill them extremely rapidly .

Many people are diagnosed with advanced stages of lung cancer because they do not take in count the early signs of the lung cancer because they confuse them with signs of seasonal flu and they ignore the fact that a simple but persistent cough could be an early sign of a lung tumors which is developing in the lung cavity .
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There have been draw many signs of attention in the last periods of time because the numbers are increasingly big and the main cause for developing this disease is caused by smoking ; although there are some other causes for developing lung cancer they do not cause so many cancer cases as smoking . Lung cancer preventions can be defined in only one word and that means quitting smoking .

There has been proven that the smokers develop a double risk to develop this kind of cancer than the people who smoke but also there is another particular category which is represented by non smokers who actually do not smoke but they stay near the people who do smoke and in this way they intake some part of the smoke of the smokers so they also will have an amount of smoke in their lungs ; because of this matter they are also a category which can develop lung cancer . For reducing the number of lung cancers, it is necessary to reduce the numbers of smokers but also of number of cigarettes and the period of time in which the patients have smoked . There is a tight connection between the risk of developing lung cancer and the number of cigarettes smoked and the period of time of smoking
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If a person stops smoking, he has another chance because by quitting at cigarettes in time the lungs can start to recover bit by bit and gradually they can repair an important part of the harm that has been caused to the lungs by the smoke and they can reduce significantly the risk of developing such a disease

Lung cancer preventions have been promoted by many lately campaigns which were especially focused against smoking and they propose many methods which can help the smokers to quit this bad habit and to lead a healthy life again without having the risk for developing this disease .

Lung Cancer Prevention

Published on Mar 26 2010, in the categories: Prevention

Each year more than 1,3 millions people are diagnosed with lung cancer and over 1,1 millions actually die per year because they are killed of this disease . The death rate is high because it is hard to detect lung cancer in early stages and after lung cancer reaches advanced stages there appear many complications because the cancer spreads and there starts to develop many kinds of affections of organs of the patient’s body and some of them are even affections of other vital organs as well as the lungs .
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More over 90% of the total cases which are detected each year are caused by smoking because it has been proven that smokers have bigger chances to be diagnosed with this disease than non-smokers ; the risk to develop this lung affection is almost double among the smokers .
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The smoking includes some factors that are tight connected with the risk of developing lung cancer and they are : the number of cigarettes smoked per day by a person and also another major factor represents the period of time that a person has been smoking . It is important to point out that smoking , indeed, is not the only cause for the appearance of this disease but it is the most frequent . Other lung cancer’s causes are : asbestos , viruses , particulate matter but also radon cause, which can be considered the second major cause of lung cancer but all these causes together do not cause more than 10% of the total cases of lung cancer that are discovered each year .
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Lung cancer prevention is concentrated in only one area and this is the smoking area . Doctors and many non governmental organizations have made many campaigns that outline the danger that people who smoke expose to . The main mean for lung cancer prevention is quitting smoking for those who already smoke and for non smokers not to say near the ones who do smoke because they become passive smokers which is as grave as smoking and also not to begin smoking . Only in these ways, there will be reduced the risks of getting lung caner .

Even for those you do smoke for some time, quitting smoking is the only chance for ameliorating things . When a persons stops to inhale the bad substances which cigarettes contain, the lung tissues can start to recover . In time, gradually and step by step, the harm that has been done to the lungs starts to heal and they can have after some time the lungs recovered in a very high percentage .
Although so many campaigns have been carried out for reducing the number of smokers and to prevent non smokers to start smoking, there has been registered not so many results because many of the smokers prefer to close their eyes, to ignore and to pretend that there does no exists such many risks if they continue smoking and they think that lung cancer can not happen to them .

How To Prevent Lung Cancer

Published on Mar 09 2010, in the categories: Prevention

Lung cancer is a disease difficult to treat and hard to discover in its early state. However, lung cancer is also one of the most preventable types of cancer. By avoiding certain risk factors, the chances of developing lung cancer can be reduced. This is the first step in lung cancer prevention. Prevention means avoiding the risk factors and increasing the protective factors that can be controlled so that the chance of developing cancer decreases. Although many risk factors can be avoided, it is important to keep in mind that avoiding risk factors does not guarantee that you will not get cancer. There are different factors that determine the development of cancer lung, factors that we can not control.

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Lung cancer is commonly associated with people who smoke. Smoking is the number one risk factor and it is estimated that 87% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking. As soon as you quit, your body reaps the benefits of being tobacco free. Quitting smoking is a must if you want to avoid lung cancer. Anyway, if you are not a smoker, but you are living or working near people who smoke, you are exposed to a similar risk. You should avoid staying near smoking people.

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Diet is an important measure in preventing lung cancer. The risk of developing lung cancer for smokers and non-smokers alike are lowered when they eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Among the most important fruits and vegetables that should be included in your diet are apples, tomatoes, melons, mangoes, dark leafy greens and onions. Having an every day healthy diet, based on fruits and vegetables, rich with antioxidants and nutrients witch protect your cells, will increase your body immunity and so protect you from all kind of diseases.

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Another important measure in the prevention of lung cancer is a routine medical check-up. A routine chest x-ray can bring an early diagnose of lung cancer so that proper treatment procedures can be implemented.

Finally, the second most common cause of lung cancer is exposure to radon, a colorless gas found in the ground. Test your home for any presence of radon. You should try to avoid all harmful exposure at home or in the workplace to fumes, dust, chemicals, gas. Taking precautions to reduce your exposure to harmful substances in your environment can reduce your risk of developing lung cancer.

In the past years, chemoprevention has shown some effectiveness in other types of cancers. Chemoprevention is the use of specific medicines to reverse, suppress, or prevent cancer growth, is being studied for lung cancer. The results of several large studies on beta-carotene, a vitamin A derivative, use show that this vitamin supplement may actually increase the risk for lung cancer in smokers.

Prevention Of Lung Cancer

Published on Feb 28 2010, in the categories: Prevention

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.

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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.

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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!