3 1.1 Lung Cancer
Types of Lung Cancer
Let’s begin with a brief review of respiratory anatomy:
Click on the interactive diagram to learn more about the different types of lung cancer:
As you can see, non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) make up roughly 85% of cancer diagnoses.[3]So what does the symptomatology of NSCLC look like?
NSCLC Signs and Symptoms
Signs and symptoms include:
- Cough
- Dyspnoea – shortness of breath
- Haemoptysis – bloody mucus or discharge from coughing
- Postobstructive pneumonia – as result of airway obstruction
- Systemic effects – including anorexia, weight loss, weakness, and profound fatigue
- Metastases of lung cancer is very common and can lead to more severe signs and symptoms.[4]
Now that we know what NSCLC looks like, who is affected most by this illness?
NSCLC Populations
- Women have lower incidence and death rates in the US
- Asian ethnicity is a favourable prognostic factor for overall survival in the US
- Access to medical care has a significant impact on racial differences in survival rates in the US
- Still, lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the US and China. [5][6]
- Made with biorender.com ↵
- Made with biorender.com ↵
- Lemjabbar-Alaoui, H., Hassan, O. U. I., Yang, Y. W. & Buchanan, P. Lung cancer: Biology and treatment options. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Reviews on Cancer 1856, 189–210 (2015). ↵
- Hoffman, P., Mauer, A. & Vokes, E. Lung cancer. Treatment and Research. The Lancet 355, (Springer, 2016) ↵
- Bach, P. B., Cramer, L. D., Warren, J. L. & Begg, C. B. Racial Differences in the Treatment of Early-Stage Lung Cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 341, 1198–1205 (1999). ↵
- Lemjabbar-Alaoui, H., Hassan, O. U. I., Yang, Y. W. & Buchanan, P. Lung cancer: Biology and treatment options. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Reviews on Cancer 1856, 189–210 (2015) ↵