Introduction

Lung cancer develops when cells in your lungs grow out of control. Normally, cells divide and replicate themselves to do their job. However, sometimes they change (mutate) and continue making more cells when they shouldn't. These damaged cells that keep growing form a mass or tumour. Over time, these tumours stop your organs from working properly.

Symptoms of Lung Cancer

Many lung cancer symptoms look like those of other less serious health issues. A lot of people don't notice any signs until the disease has spread, but some see symptoms on. For those who do have symptoms, they might see one or a few of these:

A cough that persists or worsens as time passes Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath Pain or discomfort in the chest Wheezing Spitting up blood Voice changes Reduced desire to eat Weight loss without a known cause Feeling tired for no clear reason Pain in the shoulder Puffiness in the face, neck, arms or upper chest (superior vena cava syndrome) A small pupil and drooping eyelid in one eye with little to no sweating on that side of the face (Horner's syndrome)

Risk Factors for Lung Cancer

Smoking tobacco products like cigarettes, cigars, or pipes has the greatest impact on your lung cancer risk, although other factors can also increase it. You can also face higher risks from: Breathing in secondhand tobacco smoke Coming into contact with harmful substances such as radon, asbestos, uranium, silica, coal products, diesel exhaust, and air toxins. Getting past radiation treatments to your chest Having lung cancer run in your family

Diagnosis

Blood tests: Blood tests can't diagnose cancer by themselves, but they can help your doctor check how your organs and other body parts work. Imaging: Chest X-rays and CT scans give your doctor pictures that can reveal changes in your lungs. Doctors perform PET/CT scans to evaluate a worrying finding on a CT scan or after a cancer diagnosis to determine if cancer has spread.

Biopsy:

Your doctor can use several procedures to take samples of tissue or fluid from the lung. Experts can then study these samples under a microscope to look for cancer cells and figure out what type of cancer it is. Bronchoscopy, thoracoscopy or video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS): Your doctor uses these methods to check parts of your lungs and take tissue samples. Thoracentesis: Your doctor uses this method to take a sample of the fluid around your lungs to test. Endobronchial ultrasound or endoscopic oesophageal ultrasound: Your doctor uses these methods to look at and sample lymph nodes. Mediastinoscopy or mediastinotomy: A doctor performs these procedures to examine and collect samples from the space between your lungs (mediastinum).

**Treatments **

The following are the treatment options for lung cancer:

Surgery

Doctors can operate on NSCLC that hasn't spread and SCLC confined to a single tumour. Your surgeon might cut out the tumour and a small amount of healthy tissue around it to ensure they remove all cancer cells. Sometimes they need to take out all or part of your lung (resection) to give you the best chance that the cancer won't return. Radiofrequency ablation: Doctors sometimes treat NSCLC tumours near the lung edges with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). RFA applies high-energy radio waves to heat and kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy: Radiation kills cancer cells with high energy beams. Doctors use it alone or to boost surgery effectiveness. It also helps to shrink tumours and ease pain as part of palliative care.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy often combines several drugs to stop cancer cell growth. Doctors give it before or after surgery or with other treatments, like immunotherapy. For lung cancer, patients get chemotherapy through an IV. Targeted drug therapy Some people with NSCLC have lung cancer cells with specific changes (mutations) that help the cancer grow. Special drugs target these mutations to slow down or destroy cancer cells. Other drugs known as angiogenesis inhibitors stop the tumour from creating new blood vessels, which cancer cells need to grow.

Immunotherapy

Our bodies spot cells that are damaged or harmful & destroy them. Cancer has ways to hide from the immune system to avoid being destroyed. Immunotherapy exposes cancer cells to your immune system so your own body can fight cancer.