Editorial

The U.S.'s most deadly cancer

Posted

Quick: What’s the most common form of cancer?

Breast cancer is the focus of attention in October and throughout the year –– and rightly so. So you might be inclined to say breast cancer. But there are two other forms of cancer –– both preventable in many cases –– that far outnumber breast cancer diagnoses. They are skin and lung cancer.

Each summer, we editorialize on preventing skin cancer. November, however, is National Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Lung cancer doesn’t garner the attention that other forms of cancer do because it’s largely thought of as a smoker’s disease. And in many cases, that’s true. Eighty percent of lung cancer cases are attributable to smoking, according to the American Cancer Society. So, if you’re a smoker, quit. Don’t wait; do it today. Join a support group, buy a patch, go cold turkey. Do whatever it takes, but quit.

Death by lung cancer is particularly painful. The disease robs patients of their ability to breathe, leaving them constantly short of precious oxygen needed to sustain life. Over time, as the tumor or tumors expand, the lungs contract and the airways leading in and out of the lungs shrink, until your breath is literally taken away.

The American Cancer Society says there is no known cause for 10 to 20 percent of lung cancer cases. It may be genetic, or environmental, or both. Scientists, the society says, have yet to isolate the root cause of cases in which patients have never smoked.

The trouble with lung cancer is that there is no simple early-detection test for it. Your doctor, of course, listens to your breathing during your annual physical. That, however, is hardly a cancer test. Your general practitioner cannot detect minute mutations in cell structure that eventually lead to cancer with a simple stethoscope.

According to the National Cancer Institute, sputum –– mucous coughed up from the lungs –– can be tested, and a chest X-ray can be performed, but neither is an especially effective screening. Only a low-dose spiral CT (computed tomography) scan shows any promise.

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