What is lung cancer?
It is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. There are two major kinds of lung cancer, namely, small cell and non-small cell cancers. Non-small cell lung cancer can be of the types, depending on the cells that are attacked. They are squamous cell carcinoma, large cell carcinoma and ademocarcinoma. The small cell lung cancer is sometimes called oat cell cancer and spreads more rapidly to various parts of the body as compared to the non-small cell lung cancer.
How is lung cancer related to smoking?
Even before any major research was done on the link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer, it was already evident that they were interlinked. Almost 87% of deaths in the United States and 90% of deaths worldwide due to lung cancer can be attributed primarily to smoking.
Smokers are almost 40 times as likely as non-smokers to develop lung cancer at some point in life, usually in their 50s and 60s. What makes it clear that smoking and lung cancer are related is that not only is the incidence of this cancer very high among smokers, it has been found that the chance of developing this cancer went down for those who quit smoking at some point. After a few years of quitting, their chances of developing lung cancer was almost the same as that of non-smokers.
Although lung cancer can take years, may be even decades to develop after an individual starts smoking, changes in the lung start off right from the time the individual starts smoking.
The lungs are first exposed to not just nicotine, but about 4000 different kinds of toxic chemicals contained in the tobacco and in the smoke inhaled. Of these, one of the main cancer causing agent is tar, a black substance contained in cigarette smoke, that gets accumulated in lungs and causes abnormalities in cells. This makes the lungs black and causes cancerous growth of cells.
Smoking has a wide range of effects on health is a known fact. It is known to cause damage to organs, tissues and disrupt normal functioning of the body. Bronchitis, emphysema, cancers and decay of tissues are just some of the ill effects it has on health. It is, therefore, best to stay away from smoking. But if you are already a smoker, it is never too late to quit. Quitting has been shown to drastically reduce the health risks of smoking almost as soon as the individual quits.
