Lung cancer patients must fight for life against cancer. It can be very difficult and it can be a long, difficult battle, but it is most definitely possible. As with all cancer patients, you will always have a better chance of survival the earlier the cancer is found and treated. Fast detection and treatment can help ensure recovery, while cancer found in the later stages can be very difficult to recover from.

No matter what stage of lung cancer you are in, you need to be considering treatment. Treatment is the key for recovery. You want the best treatment for your body that will eliminate all of the cancer cells. There are many treatment options that we will discuss here briefly.

Surgical treatment options, in order of complications, are wedge resection, lobectomy, and pneumonectomy. Wedge resection can be used to diagnose lung cancer or to remove a small tumor, while lobectomy is the removal of the lobe of the lung, to remove all of the cancer and tumor. Pneumonectomy is used as a last resort to get rid of cancer, but only in early stage, healthy patients. Pneumonectomy is the removal of the entire lung, so the complications are high, but it reduces your risk of reoccurring cancer significantly.

Other treatment options for lung cancer are chemotherapy and radiation therapy. They are often used in combination with one another. Chemotherapy is the use and combination of many different drugs to help kill cancer cells, while radiation therapy is the use of high-powered beams used to kill cancer cells.

In more severe cases of cancer you can consider target drug therapy, clinical trials, or supportive care. Target drug therapy is relatively new, and there are two different kinds. Tarceva target drug therapy stops the cancer cells from growing and dividing, while Bevacizumab kills the tumor by stopping its blood supply. Clinical trials are optional treatments by a variety of doctors. They are their latest theories for curing cancer. Clinical trials are never guaranteed, but being a part of them will assist the doctors in finding a true cure for lung cancer. Supportive care is used to help keep you comfortable. In supportive care you are no longer fighting the cancer, you are just relaxing and enjoying the rest of your life.

After treatment of lung cancer one always has a better chance of survival. While sometimes it may not seem long (3 to 5 years), it is better than the 4 to 5 months you would have had without the surgery. After treatment your life will change drastically. It is best if you develop a great support system within your family, and it also is a good idea to join cancer or lung cancer support groups. You can share your story, plus listen to others.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Micheal_Horton

If you are worried that you may have lung cancer, I would like you to first relax. Understand that detecting lung cancer is a long process, and along the way there are many other reasons for everything that seems abnormal. If you fear that you have detected lung cancer in you or a close loved one, please do not panic, let the doctor make the call.

The first thing I would like to cover is your emotions. I have had many family members who have been tested for lung cancer recently, and even though they are at high risk and they had all the symptoms, they did not have lung cancer. So please, please do not worry until the doctor has diagnosed you with lung cancer. It is not official until then.

If you are experiencing the following symptoms then you will want to tell your doctor right away and get in for a CT scan. The symptoms are: a new, consistent cough, "smoker's cough" changes, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing, and hoarseness. You also will want to talk to your doctor about any risk factors that you may have.

The CT scan will be able to tell if anything is abnormal around or on your lungs. You may have a nodule or you may have nothing. Many patients will be scared to no end when they have a nodule on their lung, but relax and know that there are many possibilities besides a tumor. For example, my mother's ended up being fatty tissue, while my grandmother's was calcium build up.

If you have been told you have a nodule on your lung, you doctor can run various tests to see if it is other possibilities. If it does come back as a tumor after this test, then it is still not time to worry. The next step is a biopsy exam. A biopsy will be able to tell if it is cancerous cells or just a tumor. You are not officially diagnosed with lung cancer until the biopsy results come back as cancerous, and that is very rare compared to the number of people who are tested.

If your results came back as cancerous, then the best of luck to you. Join support groups, and evaluate your life so you are able to share your experience with others and your children. How would you want them to prevent lung cancer? Talk to your doctor about the variety of treatment methods and about how severe your cancer is. The early your stage, the greater chance you have of removing all of the cancer cells.

If your test results came back good, then congratulations, but do not forget this experience and still try to limit your risk factors and prevent yourself from developing lung cancer along with other cancers. Keep yourself healthy and your family healthy. Exercise regularly together. If any of you are at high risk, then work extra hard and bring about a greater awareness in your children about how smoking and drinking can harm them.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Micheal_Horton

After thousands of years of documentation pointing out the link between asbestos exposure and health issues, such as lung disease, the United States finally banned most forms of asbestos starting in 1988. However, because asbestos-related diseases may take years to manifest, they are still showing up 20 years later. Mesothelioma is one such problem.

Mesothelioma is a specific type of cancer caused by prolonged exposure to asbestos. It was first recognized in a South African chest and infectious disease hospital near an asbestos mine in the mid-1950s. While tuberculosis responded to treatment, doctors realized that there existed another lung disease out there that was not cured by tuberculosis treatment.

Finally, Chris Wagner, a medical researcher, began to study the unknown disease. He and two other researchers figured out the link between mesothelioma and asbestos. In 1959, they presented their findings at an international conference, and they submitted their article to a British medical journal. They reported that in 33 of the mesothelioma cases they studied, 32 of them were definitively linked to asbestos exposure.

This material becomes dangerous when it breaks off into microscopic shards that can be inhaled or ingested. Thus, it can easily cause mesothelioma, a particular type of cancer that attacks the lining of the abdominal cavity as well as the individual liners of our bodies' organs. Due to its close contact with such important parts of our bodies, mesothelioma can be very deadly.

Thankfully, though, further research into this disease has given us more options for treatment. Mostly, the method of treatment that a doctor will recommend depends on several things, including:

Type of mesothelioma
Tumor size and location
Degree/stage of the cancer
Age and physical health of the patient

Once doctors figure out the above information, they may outline a treatment plan based on the following:

Surgery - this option is exercised to either cure the cancer or make the patient more comfortable. Thus, it is often used very early in mesothelioma or very late.

Chemotherapy - this is not a cure for the cancer, but it can help stop the spread of the tumors. It can help provide relief from the painful symptoms associated with mesothelioma.

Radiation - radiative treatment is often exercised as an alternative to chemotherapy. It is better for more fragile people because it has less harsh side effects than chemo.

Clinical trials - up-and-coming treatment options can be tried in clinical trials. They are experimental and not yet approved by the FDA, so you must choose for yourself if it is worth the risk.

Alternative therapy - if you do not want to pursue a traditional treatment, you can try things like massage, acupuncture, or hypnosis, as well as a special diet or supplements to help you.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joseph_Devine

When American doctors began reporting on asbestos-related diseases beginning in the early 1900s, many other countries started recognizing the associated health issues as well. Asbestos causes things like asbestosis, pleural plaques, pleural thickening, lung cancer, and mesothelioma, among others. Thankfully, asbestos is now banned in the United States, but it came too late for many people.

Mentions of asbestos-related diseases came almost simultaneously with the usage of the material. Researchers have found evidence of asbestos usage in cultures from 3,000 years ago. Huts in what is now Finland have been preserved, providing evidence of asbestos-laced chinking used for building. One thousand years later, Greeks and Romans also harnesses the power of asbestos for themselves.

However, the Greek geographer Strabo wrote about the prevalence of lung disease in people who had lots of contact with asbestos. Additionally, the Roman Renaissance man Pliny the Elder noted lung illnesses that arose in people who had prolonged or intensive exposure to asbestos. He even went so far as to recommend that people looking for slaves should not buy those who had worked in asbestos mines or other asbestos-related careers.

Asbestos did not rise again in popularity until the Industrial Revolution. With the increase in usage of machines, people needed something like asbestos as an insulator. As a silicate material, asbestos is incredibly useful in resisting heat, flame, chemicals, electricity, and biodegradation. Its own qualities make asbestos flexible and with high tensile strength. Thus, it is no surprise that it was added to everything from shingles to vinyl flooring to fire doors.

At the beginning of the 20th century, both American and British doctors noticed the increase in illnesses that corresponded with the higher utilization of asbestos. In 1906, a British doctor reported the first case of asbestosis. By the 1920s, many people acknowledged that jobs such as asbestos mining led to disease. This prompted the government to conduct a study on the safety of asbestos in the 1930s.

It was not until 1948 that South Africa, a country with asbestos mining, opened up a chest and infectious disease hospital near an asbestos mining town. It was here that the first superintendent, Chris Sleggs, noticed that there existed a lung problem that did not respond to medication like tuberculosis. Later, Chris Wagner instituted a study looking for another lung disease. Finally, in 1959, Wagner and his colleagues presented research that specifically linked mesothelioma to asbestos exposure.

Now we know that asbestos causes many different diseases, besides just mesothelioma and asbestosis. However, it can take years for mesothelioma to manifest, which means that the estimated peak of diagnoses is not until 2016.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joseph_Devine