What is Lung Cancer

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Any cancer is scary, but lung cancer is especially scary because it is one type of cancer that is not well researched. Additionally, some types of lung cancer are very difficult to diagnose until it is well advanced and has spread throughout the body.

It can help to get informed about what is lung cancer. Just understanding it better can take away some of the fear and help you to know what you can do to prevent it or beat it if you have already been diagnosed.

Basics of Cancer

Discovering what is lung cancer starts with a little understand about cancer in general. Cancer is caused by abnormal cell growth. Usually cancer cells group together and form a tumor. In lung cancer, abnormal cells do not always cause a tumor. Instead they spread throughout the lung and chest area with some chance of spreading throughout the body.

Lung cancer is very dangerous because the growth of cancer cells, even if tumors do form, can happen without symptoms. Many people diagnosed with lung cancer are diagnosed by accident through a chest x-ray, taken for another reason.

Another issue with lung cancer is that these cancer cells seem to grow quickly and are very good at easily moving to other areas in the body. Many cancers are localized, meaning that they only begin to spread after years and years of growth, but lung cancer cells are very fast growing and like to invade the whole chest area, bones, glands and even the brain.

Lung cancer is so difficult to detect because even when symptoms are present they can easily be pushed aside as a simple cold or other respiratory illness. Most people give no thought to having a cough or dull pain in the chest. Even doctors can easily misdiagnose lung cancer for a respiratory illness.

Symptoms

As mentioned, understanding what is lung cancer is made difficult because of the symptoms. The most common symptoms of lung cancer are:

• Coughing
• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath

These are simple symptoms that a person might never think of linking to cancer. The main idea when it comes to symptoms is persistence. Generally, any common respiratory illness will go away with treatment, but any symptom that seems to linger and never go away could be an indication of lung cancer.

General Facts

Now you have a good idea about what is lung cancer. Here are some general facts to give you more information about the disease:

• Lung cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in the U.S.
• Lung cancer is most often caused by smoking tobacco.
• It can be categorized as small cell or non-small cell.
• It is staged, which means once discovered the cancer is given a stage to determine how far advanced it is and serve as a guide for treatment. Stages range from 1 to 4, with 4 being the most advanced.
• There are more than 12 different types of lung cancer.

Also, check out my other guide on symptoms of lung cancer




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