Lung Cancer: A Short Story

     Lung cancer is the most common cancer-related cause of death among men and women. Lung cancer can be undetected for many years causing it to become more dangerous and possibly fatal. There is not cure for lung cancer or any cancer, but if detected in an early stage the lung cancer can be detected, treated, and hopefully terminated. There are many new and developing treatments being tested now that may save lives in the future. Through understanding what the lung cancer is, doctors can easily diagnose and assess cancer patients.

Throughout life, many individuals experience difficulties due to growing up in everyday life. While going in depth of the human life, it is discovered that there are many diseases and disorders that affect humans’ everyday functions. A very popular disease that has traumatically affected the human body is cancer. Cancer is a disease that spreads throughout your body in many ways. The purpose of cancer is to attach to a blood cell in your body and cause a plague within itself, causing the body to initially shut down and die. This disease contains many forms and have many causes to it. However its main goal is to destroy the human body.

Lung cancer is a genetic and acquired disease. Lung cancer is genetic because cancer in general is caused by changes to the genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide. All of these changes include mutations in the DNA that makes up our genes. Genetic changes that increase cancer risk can be inherited from our parents, if the changes are presents in germ cells. Which are the reproductive cells of the body, those are the eggs and the sperm. Lung cancer is also acquired because as the result of errors that occur as cells divide a person’s lifetime or exposure to certain chemicals. Some examples of these chemicals are found in tobacco smoke, radiation, UV rays from the sun that damage DNA. “In general, cancer cells have more genetic changes than normal cells. But each person’s cancer has a unique combination of genetic alterations.” Some of these changes may be the result of cancer, rather than the cause. As the cancer continues to grow, additional changes will occur. Even within the same tumor, cancer cells may have different genetic changes.

Patient stated that her siblings were born in a hospital. Mariano Saquilayan, grandfather, died at the age of 61 from lung cancer. Patient states that her grandfather smoked for a long time; therefore, leading to the result of lung cancer. Patient’s parents from her father’s side are diagnosed with diabetes, unknown of type (ages 80 and 77). Uncle on father’s side, Reynaldo Vinzon, developed diabetes at age 55; patient is unknown of type of diabetes. Patient’s uncle, Arnel Saquilayan, on her mother’s side is 55 years old and diagnosed with Polio and uncle, Manny Saquilayan, of 48 years old is diagnosed with heart disease. Patient is unaware of the type of disease. Patient’s parents both have hypertension and is currently taking medication for

Growing up, I was introduced to death and funerals. I understood what was happening, but I never knew what was going on. I would ask the questions, “Are they coming back?” or, “ Do they even get a second chance of life?”

I chose the noncommunicable disease called lung cancer. I chose this disease because my grandfather had this disease. My grandfather passed away because of this disease so it means a lot to me to research it and learn more about it.

Lung cancer is a malignant lung tumor defined by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Malignant tumors of this type can expand throughout the person's body through their bloodstream or lymphatic system. Lung cancer is very life-threatening; it is a leading cause of cancer death in men and women in the United States. Lung cancer is one of the most typical cancers in the world. Lung cancer has the ability to transfuse to any organ in the body, although some organs are more commonly touched; such as the liver, brain, and adrenal glands. Lung cancer can also involve in the bones as well. The lung's main function is the interchange of gases between the air a person breathes and the blood in their body. The lungs withdraw carbon dioxide

Lung cancer is one of the most significant and preventable causes of death in the United States and other developed countries today. Some states within the US have higher instances of lung cancer than others, and there are various factors that affect that. For the state of Tennessee, which will be the focus of this paper, the most current year for which lung cancer statistics are available is 2007. According to the CDC, there were 78.4 to 97.7 people per 100,000 who got lung cancer in Tennessee in 2007 (CDC, 2010). Among people in that state who had lung cancer, 56.8 to 74.6 per 100,000 died in that same year (CDC, 2010). The Tennessee Department of Health also released 2007 figures on the 10 leading causes of death in that state, which were:

There are two different types of lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. It is all depending on the size of what the cells look like under a microscope. Both of these types of lung cancer can grow differently which leads to them both being treated differently. Non-small cell lung cancer is the more common of the two and it usually grows fairly slow. There are three main types of non-small cell lung cancer and they are squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. Small cell cancer is the least common and it grows fairly rapid and it can easily spread to other organs in the body (Cavendish, p.946).

Unfortunately in patients diagnosed with lung cancer there is a poor survival rate and the patients face ongoing physical and chronic illness. This illness can often debilitate ones life. One of the most common symptoms associated with this disease is dyspnea (Yates, 2013). According to the American Thoracic Society, dyspnea is a term used to describe the discomfort of breathing that varies in intensity (Ferrell, 2015). According to Marian Grant, dyspnea is often subjective. Lung cancer patients, like Mrs. P, will often tell the nurse or doctor the degree of shortness of breath, but there are other tests such as basic lab work, arterial blood gases, and imaging. Assessments should also include factors that effect Mrs. P breathing such as positioning, exertion, smoking, and determining if her

Navani N, Nankivell M, Lawrence DR, et al. Lung cancer diagnosis and staging with endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration compared with conventional approaches: an open-label, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Respiratory medicine. 2015;3(4):282 - 9.

The rise of modern tobacco recounts a cautionary tale highlighted with both hubris and malfeasance. To study epidemiology’s role concerning lung cancer in the 20th century is to study the virtues of objective deliberation and the failures of dogmatism. From the purview of epidemiology, understanding how hyperbolic discounting leads to catastrophic unintended consequences might provide insight into the applied epidemiological facets of public health policy. Additionally, the modern epidemiologist should understand that dogmatism could lead to myopic discourse fraught with erroneous deliberation. Epidemiology’s relationship with tobacco provides a near perfect example of how objective methods informed populations and guided policy. Under the

Lung cancer is a disgusting disease that many have died from. It is the largest single cause of cancer deaths in America. It causes more deaths than colon, breast and pancreatic cancer combined. People shouldn’t have to suffer from this disease. We have to prevent any more cases of lung cancer.

Staging is the process of doing examinations and tests to learn the extent of the cancer; especially whether it has metastasized from its original site to other parts of the body. Lung cancer staging was developed by (UICC) Union Internationale Contre le Cancer and the American Joint Committee for Cancer Staging (AJCC). The staging system developed is called (TNM) staging system, which stands for tumor, node, and metastases. "The TNM system is used for all lung carcinomas except small cell lung cancers," (Isaac Hassan, 2009) which uses a different staging system. Before I go any further note that (NSCLC) makes up for 75% of all lung cancers, and since non-small cell lung cancers make up the majority of people with lung cancer in the US, we will concentrate on the staging process for (NSCLC). Staging provides a means to which different therapies can be compared to receive optimal results. Staging describes the extent of lung cancer in people. The elements of staging are:

Lung cancer is one of the most popular type of cancer that cause of cancer-related death in the world, and most common with female rather than male. (cancer.org.2014)