by Lauren Beyenhof

Created on: March 03, 2009

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death in female and adult populations. Over the last few years the number of women diagnosed with cancer has increased because more women are smoking than every before. Approximately 90% of lung cancers start in the brochi (the large, branching airways) and the trachea. This type of lung cancer is called "bronchogenic carcinoma." The more specific types of lung cancer are small cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma.

Almost everyonek knows that smoking leads to lung cancer. The American Lung Association reports that smoking is the cause of 90% of lung cancer in men, and 80% in women. Nearly 1 in 9 who start smoking today will be killed by it. Some people are fortunate and can survive many years without a sing tumor appearing. Others are bombarded in their younger ages by the unrelenting progression of tumors and carcinomas.

Symptoms of Lung Cancer

Depending on its location in the body, the symptoms of lung cancer are widely variable. Some people with lung cancer develop a loud, hacking cough, while other only experience a tightness of breath that turns into wheezing. A person whose lungs are blocked off experience something called atelectasis. Other symptoms include :fever, chest pain, shortness or breathe, pneumonia, coughing pain.

Horner's syndrome is a set of symptoms known to show up in people whose cancer is touching the nerves of the face. A drooping eyelid, sunken eye, reduced pupil size and pain in the nerves that run through the arms are what happens to people with Horner's syndrome.

Lung cancer doesn't always just stick to the lungs and bronchi. It can reach into the esophagus where a tumor or ulcer eats away at the throat. When a growth becomes so severe that it blocks a person's windpipe, a tracheotomy is performed and a tube inserted into the trachea to help the patient breathe again.

Pulmonary problems also develop for people battling lung cancer. As lung cancer grows into the heart it interferes with blood flow, or fills the pericardium (the sac around the heart) with infected fluids. This keeps the heart from bleeding normally. A syndrome called "superior vena cava syndrome" is the condition in which the caner cuts deeply into the body leaving its dark mark along the superior vena cavaone of the heart's main blood lines.

Diagnostics

Eventually a doctor will bring up the subject of cancer screening to his or her patients known to be smokers. Diagnosing any tumors can be done by CT scans or chest

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