Bronchogenic Carcinoma

Bronchogenic Carcinoma General Information

Bronchogenic Carcinoma is commonly known as lung cancer, and as many other forms of cancer is characterized by an uncontrolled growth of the cells that form the tissues of the lung. When the cancer develops from epithelial cells it is said to be carcinomas of the lungs. The lung cancer is a malignant tumor in the most cases and it does not have a very good prognosis. This form of cancer affects both men and women and causes over 1.5 million deaths in the whole world, annually, being more common among men (30%). Although breast cancer is very common among women, Bronchogenic Carcinoma is more likely to lead to the death of the woman than the breast cancer. There have been differentiated four main types of lung cancer cells: small cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, large cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Usually, Bronchogenic Carcinoma is divided in two major types that include the others two: non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC), division which is very important to determine when proceeding with a treatment. While the first type is treated with surgery, the second one is more likely to have a better responsiveness to chemotherapy. Usually, this form of cancer is common among those people who expose themselves for a long period of time to tobacco smoke or to chemicals carcinogens of the lungs. A non-smoker person can also be affected, but the risk is much lower. The persons normally affected are between 40 and 75 years old.

Bronchogenic Carcinoma Symptoms

The most common cause that leads to Bronchogenic Carcinoma is the cigarette smoking. Some other causes, with a much smaller proportion are in relation with occupational agents, such as: exposure to different forms of radiation (for example, from atomic bomb blasts or from a treatment for cancer), coke oven emissions, chloromethyl ethers, asbestos, nickel, arsenic, mustard (poison war) gas, or chromates. You can stop smoking before it is too late. Tumors usually start developing after a long time, so that you can reduce the risk of getting Bronchogenic Carcinoma. So, before any symptoms start bothering you, do not smoke anymore. This might be the only preventive measure and the most effective one. There are a couple of symptoms that may indicate you have Bronchogenic Carcinoma, for example: weight loss (cachexia), coughing up frank blood (hemoptysis or blood tinged sputum), wheezing, difficulty when swallowing (dysphagia), hoarse voice (dysphonia), shortness of breath (dyspnea), weakness, pain in the abdomen or in the chest, loss of the appetite, changes in the regular coughing pattern that may transform into chronic coughing, tiredness, pain of the arms, shoulders or bones, and clubbing of your fingernails (not very common). We must be precise that a person may not have any sign or symptom that indicate the lung cancer and the manifestations of this affection of the lungs differ of the location of the tumor and how much it has spread.  Also, the signs and symptoms are more obvious in patients that are over 55 years old and smoke for a long period of time.

Bronchogenic Carcinoma Treatment

If you are over 40 years old, smoke for a long time and you complain of any of the symptom and signs listed above, it is time to call your health care provider for an appointment. It is necessarily to detect Bronchogenic Carcinoma on time. If not, there could appear some serious complications that could end with the death of the individual. An early diagnosis of this disease is critical. In some cases, without performing a surgery, this cancer has no chances to cure from itself. But only 20% of the tumors present the possibility to be surgically removed. You will be first asked about your habits and about your medical history. After this formal examination, for a right establishment of the diagnosis (if you suffer of Bronchogenic Carcinoma or other form of cancer), you may need to do some laboratory tests of your blood and sputum, tests for the liver functionality, biopsies (laboratory examinations of small amounts of fluids or tissues that have been removed from your lungs), MRI scans, chest X-rays, tests to check the levels of electrolytes, calcium or PTH (parathyroid hormone), CT scans, pulmonary function studies, and bronchoscopes. Only after the exact determination of the tumor location and how much did it spread, the doctor can proceed with a treatment.

The options for a treatment depend on TNM staging of Bronchogenic Carcinoma. If the lung cancer is detected in its early stages, the specialists may appeal to surgery in order to remove either only a part of the lung (lobectomy), or the entire lung that is affected by Bronchogenic Carcinoma (pneumonectomy). If the cancer has progressed to more advanced stages, after the surgery you may need to do chemotherapy or/and radiation. Also, if the doctor considers that the patient does not need surgery, he or she might give him a cisplatin-based chemotherapy or topoisomerase inhibitors in combination with radiation. This method has proved to be more efficient than any surgery, reducing the risk of death, although the total cures are rare. These procedures are used for non-small cell carcinoma. When dealing with small cell carcinoma, combinations of chemotherapy may be used as treatment. Surgery is not a method because the small cell carcinoma is spread when the disease is diagnosed. The brain also receives a treatment with radiation for micrometastases that could have already developed. Other types of medicines are the pain killers, such as narcotic analgesics used to treat palliation. Any activity you perform during a treatment for Bronchogenic Carcinoma must be checked with a physician and permitted by him. There is no specific diet that you should follow while you are on a treatment for lung cancer. Any treatment may carry after him some possible adverse effects, such as: lung collapse, a spreading of the tumor that could destroy other major organs (bones, liver or even brain), pneumonia, spontaneous fractures (when spreading to the bones), or pleural effusion (when fluid is collected around the lung. The recurrence of this lung disease is very often, but the good news is that the symptoms are usually controlled or relieved.