The Relationship Between Smoking and Lung Cancer
The Most Important Cause of Lung Cancer is Smoking.
Lung cancer is the disease that causes the most deaths in almost all countries today. Among cancer types, lung cancer is the most common. In addition, breast cancer is also common in women, but looking at the last 15 years, the incidence of breast cancer is decreasing, while the incidence of lung cancer is increasing. This indicates that lung cancer will soon rank first in women as well. Many studies conducted in previous years have shown that smoking is responsible for 88% of lung cancer development. The risk of developing the disease for smokers increases by about 10 times compared to non-smokers. This leads to the conclusion that 9 out of every 10 patients would not have contracted cancer if they did not smoke. Several factors are prominent in the occurrence of lung cancer. Generally evaluated; the age we start smoking, the total duration of smoking, and the amount smoked per day are important. Lung-related illnesses appear in later ages as a result of years of deformation of the lungs. The factors mentioned above are therefore important in the diagnosis of the disease. In recent years, an increase has also been observed in exceptional cases. Every human body is not the same, and their reactions are not the same. A person with only 5 years of smoking history can sometimes be in a worse condition than a 50-year chain smoker. While a 50-year user has not contracted cancer, a 5-year user can be a cancer patient. The destruction of a single cell in our lungs by a single cigarette we smoke is enough to start lung cancer. Therefore, the more cigarettes we smoke per day, and the earlier we start smoking, the higher our risk of developing lung cancer. Our risk of developing cancer begins to decrease from the moment we quit smoking. Within a period of 15 years, we enter the same risk group as someone who has not used cigarettes.
Passive Smoking and Lung Cancer
What we call passive smoking, which is exposure to cigarette smoke even if we do not smoke, also poses a risk for the disease. People who are in environments where smoking occurs have a 5 times higher risk of developing lung cancer compared to non-smokers. Various chemicals in cigarette smoke directly penetrate our lungs when we inhale the smoke. This also puts passive smokers at risk. There are factors other than smoking in the development of cancer. Genetic factors, environmental factors. However, the most important cause of lung cancer is smoking, with a rate of 88%. Even if other factors have effects, they are too small to be significant. Non-smokers occasionally develop lung cancer due to these factors. The reason why we smoke is the nicotine it contains. When nicotine is inhaled from smoke, it reaches the brain in a short time and stimulates a few hormones in the brain, making us feel happy. This feeling of happiness disappears after a short time, and we light another cigarette to try to keep the nicotine level circulating in our blood high. However, the smoke we inhale contains up to 5000 chemical substances. Many of these chemicals are toxic. Almost our entire body is affected by these chemicals. What causes lung cancer is the chemical residues of cigarettes, which we call tar. Tar is the substance that causes the greatest harm to our bodies. Over years of smoking, tar accumulates completely in our lungs. The lungs become unable to perform their functions. In some cases, tar is removed from the patients' lungs to provide relief.
Treatment of Lung Cancer
Once diagnosed with lung cancer, the disease progresses very rapidly. Among cancer types, lung cancer is the fastest spreading and multiplying cancer. Therefore, there is not much that can be done once the patient contracts the disease. In this regard, early diagnosis becomes even more important in lung cancer. If an early diagnosis is made, there is hope for treatment; otherwise, treatment is not possible. Due to this characteristic of the disease, precautions must be taken before contracting the cancer, and its occurrence must be prevented. The most important way to protect against the disease is to quit smoking. Not smoking is sufficient in itself for protection. However, passive smoking should not be forgotten. With the bans introduced today, smoking in enclosed spaces has been completely prohibited. This has significantly reduced exposure to passive smoking. Nevertheless, we must protect ourselves from lung cancer by paying attention to smoking and passive smoking at home and in private workplaces.
