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Overview for Dietary and Lifestyle or Treatment info
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Smoking is by far the most important causative factor in the production
of bronchial carcinoma. After heart disease and pneumonia, it is the
next most common cause of death in the UK. Smoke from cigarettes mainly
comes from voluntary smoking, but can be involuntary in this respect
that workers in close proximity to a smoker will breathe in smoke.
This is now recognised as 'passive smoking'. The incidence has been
more common in males but the gap between males and females is narrowing.
Statistics (Scotland)
Statistics show that in 1990, deaths from lung cancer
was greater in males: males 2670; females - 1453; 1999 - males
2305, females 1656. This indicates that smoking appears to be decreasing
in males and that there is a noticeable rise in the incidents in women.
There is a higher incidence in urban areas than in rural areas.
Risk factors are: exposure to asbestos (building workers) and those
who breathe in the products of coal combustion. There is a particularly
severe form of cancer produced if mesothelial cells of the lung covering
(pleura) is attacked, causing a nesothelioma.
Asbestosis produces an adenocarcinoma, this form is more common in
non-smokers. Local effects when the cancer is confined to a bronchus
are:
- constant coughing
- pain in the chest
- the production of blood found in the sputum (haemoptysis)
- shortness of breath (dyspnoea)
Spread within the chest follows from a bronchial site to the ribs,
eventually causing bone pain and fractures. Spread may include the
network of nerves in the area causing pain in the shoulder and inner
arm. This is a particular tumour called 'Pancoast's tumour'. Larynseal
involvement causes hoarseness and a distinctive cough called 'bovine',
because of the sound.
Non-specific symptoms occur such as 'clubbing of the fingers', for
which there has not been found a cause. There is, in addition, malaise,
tiredness and weightloss, all causing a general debility. There are
many more symptoms, all dependent upon the area to which the cancer
has spread.
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