How to Avoid Lung Cancer

What is lung cancer?

Anatomy, tumor biology, cancer incidence

The supply of the body with oxygen. It is designed to be in direct contact with the environment. Although the body cleans the air to protect against pathogens and pollutants. But with this defense, he does not manage everything. Some still get into the lung and sometimes pollutants lead to cancer. But even without recognizable trigger lung cancer can arise. Bronchial carcinomas, as doctors call lung cancer, are not all the same: they are divided into two groups with different characteristics.

The lungs: structure and function
 The lung perform a vital task: it supplies the body with oxygen. Every organ, every tissue needs it. Without oxygen, most cells within a few minutes. Catch your breath

Catch your breath

With each breath about a liter of air flows through the nose and trachea into the two lung. They lie to the left and right behind the sternum. The right of three lobes: upper, middle and lower praise. The left has only two praises and is slightly smaller, because here is the heart beats and needs space. In the lungs there is a wide branched tube system, the bronchi. The breathing air flows into it. It follows the ever finer ramifying bronchi, until it finally flows into the alveoli at the end of the tiniest tube. Gas exchange takes place in the alveoli: oxygen from the air passes into the blood; Carbon dioxide is exhaled.

Self-cleaning of the lung

 The incoming air is purified by the hair and the mucous membrane in the nose and throat. In addition, a protective mucus in the bronchi ensures that many particles remain from the breath. This prevents the body from clogging the smallest airways or causing disease. The cilia of the bronchi transport the particles out again. But they are in constant contact with the environment via the air they breathe and therefore come into direct contact with harmful substances.

Basics: how cancer develops

Experts believe the genetic information in a cell change before the onset of cancer. Such changes can lead to a cell no longer aging and dying but can multiply unchecked. This is the transformation into a cancer cell. Triggers can be carcinogenic pollutants, such as cigarette smoke. However, cancer can also be caused, for example, by random errors in cell division - without recognizable risk factors.

 Benign tumors are different

Benign tumors divide like cancerous tissue faster than normal, healthy cells. Search "benign" tumors So proliferate, but they remain in the tissue of origin, and they grow larger displace surrounding tissue and organs. Cancer, on the other hand, grows into surrounding tissues and organs and destroys them. In addition, search malignant or "malignant" tumors may form secondary tumors in other organs, called metastases, and benign tumors do not.

 Cancer in the lung: the different tumor types

Benign tumors are rare in the lung. However, there are several malignant tumors that can arise in lung tissue. Most common are bronchial carcinomas, also referred to as carcinomas or lung cancers. Bronchial carcinomas belong to the solid tumors - these emanates from an organ or tissue and grow first only in this place in a tissue association. As the disease progresses, cells from such solid tumors can become detached and spread throughout the body. Two big tumor groups Those skilled in the art can distinguish cancer under the microscope based on the appearance of the cells and the cell size. They classify cancer into two groups based on these characteristics: small cell and non-small cell lung cancer. Meanwhile, doctors can even differentiate tumor with laboratory methods. In each of these two groups, therefore, different types of tumors can be found. Which tumor has a sufferer, determine doctors during the diagnosis. This therefore has a decisive influence on therapy.

Other cancers in the lungs

 In the lung, soft tissue sarcomas can thus arise. They are therefore much more rare than bronchial carcinomas. In addition to such solid tumors, there are so-called systemic cancers that affect the entire body immediately - and thus the lung. These include leukemia's and lymphomas. They have cells in the immune system that circulate with blood and lymph throughout the body.
Metastases in the lungs: Not to be confused with bronchogenic carcinomas
Sometimes, malignant cancerous tumors that are not cancer. They develop in the lung tissue. Because their place of origin is a tumor in another organ. From the individual cells have been washed over the blood or the lymph into the lung. Here they have been settled and formed new metastases. These tumors usually have still properties of their original tissue. Doctors can detect this with a microscope and laboratory tests: Breast cancer metastases in the lung, for example, often have properties of breast tissue. They are treated differently than lung cancer. Conversely, lung cancer can also form metastases in other organs, such as the brain, bone, liver, or adrenal glands.

 Statistics: frequency of bronchial carcinoma

 In Germany, about 53,900 people get lung cancer each year. In men, it is the second most common cancer after prostate cancer, with around 34,600 sufferers. In women, bronchogenic carcinoma is the third most common cancer after breast cancer and colorectal cancer, with approximately 19,300 sufferers. Women are on average 70 years old when doctors diagnose the disease. In absolute terms, there are more and more people with lung cancer. This is because more and more people reach a higher age, in which cancer is more likely. If one takes the factor "age" out, then the picture is different: the number of sick men has fallen slightly for some years, which is because of the changed smoking behavior were more and more smokers and fewer and fewer smokers.

Cancer prevention and cancer detection

Individual prevention: how to protect yourself from cancer

Can cancer be prevented? The answer is Yes, but not always, not everyone. The risk of some more common cancers such as lung cancer, colon cancer or even cervical cancer can be reduced - if you live well and avoids the risk factors known today. But there are also cancers in which a healthy diet, a lot of sports or abstinence from tobacco do nothing. And early detection examinations are not useful for all types of tumors. The Cancer Information Service provides background information and science-based facts, both on the currently known cancer risk factors and on cancer screening.