Lung Cancer – A Look at the Numbers
Lung cancer was the single biggest type of cancer diagnosed which accounts for 22% of all cancer deaths in 2004. Lung cancer accounts for one of the most cancer-related deaths in both men and women, is responsible for 1.3 million deaths annually worldwide.
It accounts for about 30% of all deaths from cancer.The unfortunate reality is that many of those deaths could have been prevented — fully 85% of all lung cancers are caused by smoking. Extended exposure to second-hand or passive smoke – the CDC reports that there are over 3-thousand lung cancer deaths a year attributable to second-hand smoke.4. If everyone were to give up smoking, the incidence of lung cancer would drop dramatically.After smoking, radon exposure is the second most common cause of lung cancer in America.
When a person stops smoking, his lung cancer risk is lowered by almost half in 10 years.Finally, the second most common cause of lung cancer is exposure to radon, a colorless gas found in the ground. How can there be any current risk of asbestos exposure?Answer: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that over 700,000 public buildings in this country still contain asbestos.
Mesothelioma is less common in African Americans than in white Americans. This is because of a high cultural propensity among this group to take up the smoking habit.This is also one of the deadliest forms of cancer around.
Malignant Mesothelioma is known as one of the worlds deadliest forms of cancer. Cancer statistics show that the five year survival rate of breast cancer patients is 87%, while that of colon cancer patients is 62%. In 2004 lung cancer killed more people than breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer combined. The five-year survival rate for early non-small cell lung cancer is close to 50 percent; five-year survival drops to about two percent in the most advanced cases.
Sufferers only become aware of symptoms once the cancer has reached an advanced stage, which is why the disease is so difficult to treat and has such a low survival rate once diagnosed. In stage four of the cancer, the cancer has spread to other parts of the body and the tumor has often deeply eaten into various key organs and tissues in the body. It actually reduces the damage significantly and controls the spread somewhat.
If a person stops smoking the risks reduce quickly and after 15 years the chances of developing lung cancer are the same as a non-smoker. In reality these are quite ineffective and unfortunately it is extremely difficult to be completely cured from mesothelioma. Every year that you do not smoke, your chances of developing lung cancer drop further.
Whilst all smokers are more likely to develop this type of cancer than non-smokers, certain smokers may be more at risk because of their family history.
Studies have found that cigarette smokers have a four to eleven times greater chance of getting lung cancer than non-smokers. And current smokers are 13 times as likely to die of this illness.It is obvious that prevention is the best policy when it comes to lung cancer.
Women smokers have 5 to 15 times greater risk than non-smoking women. Cigar and pipe smokers are at 5% higher risk to die of lung cancer than non-smokers.
Some studies show that those who are taking selenium supplements exhibit about 46 percent lower lung cancer rate.Vitamin C is also good in the prevention of lung cancer. You can prevent health related illnesses like emphysema, heart disease and lung cancer by never smoking or quitting smoking as soon as possible.