JOIN USIf you are a regular smoker, a cigarette probably completes your meals and helps you relax in times of stress. You might have tried to quit numerous times and failed because those puffs are too hard to resist. There may be a hundred reasons for you to want to smoke but there are in fact more reasons for you to kick the butt.
Millions of people around the world stay addicted to smoking without bothering about the consequences. This has led to lung cancer growing to be one of the biggest diseases plaguing mankind. Around 1.6 million men and women across the globe succumb to the ailment every year. In India, 57,795 new cases of lung cancer were reported in 2010, while the number is expected to touch 67,000 by 2020. Studies find that 87% males and 85% females with lung cancer were active smokers.
The reason for such a high mortality rate is delayed diagnosis. Lung cancer rarely causes symptoms in the initial stages. By the time people come to know about the disease, it would have already reached an advanced stage. Hence, early screening and diagnosis is the only way to a successful outcome, as the cancer spreads rapidly in the advanced stage and is fatal in most cases.
Know the symptoms
Awareness plays a key role in identifying symptoms. If you experience cough, coughing up blood or rusty-coloured phlegm, fatigue, unexplained weight loss, recurrent respiratory infection, hoarseness of voice, wheezing, and shortness of breath, report them to your doctor immediately.
Once a rare disease, lung cancer has grown drastically over the past few years. If you are over 45 years of age and have been an active smoker for the past 20 years, it’s time for you to get screened for lung cancer on a yearly basis. Being an active smoker increases your chance of suffering from lung cancer by 15 to 30 times. What makes lung cancer a more serious disease is that it has nothing to do with age. It does not matter if you had started smoking recently or you have been smoking for many years as you are always at risk. Screening, especially, in high risk groups, is the only way to stay safe.
Your physician will prescribe a routine CT scan, X-ray of the chest cavity or sputum cytology to diagnose or rule out the possibility of lung cancer. Of these, only low-dose spiral/helical CT scan have been recommended for lung cancer screening among high-risk patients.
In addition to smoking, exposure to carcinogenic chemicals, passive smoking, air pollution, lung infections, burning of coal in houses, and family history can also contribute to lung cancer. Those who don’t smoke should watch out for these causative agents. So, consider wearing a mask in areas that you consider as risk zones.
As for treatment, surgery can be effective in getting rid of the cancer, provided it is diagnosed at an early stage. Advanced technological innovations has made surgery much safer, as it is often performed laproscopically (through a small hole instead of a large incision) in the chest.
With the new diagnostic and treatment options, the prognosis for lung cancer has significantly improved. However, regular screening is mandatory.
By quitting smoking and breathing in clean air, you can keep your lungs healthy and make sure you don’t succumb to cancer.
(The author is consultant thoracic surgeon and thoracoscopic surgeon, Sagar Hospital, Bengaluru)