Lung Cancer

Lung cancer. What the hell is it? I'll explain what lung cancer is soon after I explain the respiratory system. Don't panic, I promise you'll get an better understanding as long as you're breathing. Now, the respiratory system has a few jobs. The respiratory system controls ventilation, regulate blood (ph), and produces speech. These jobs are vital to maintain the body and keep it functioning correctly. See? You knew your lungs had more purpose than just pumping air! The nose and the mouth are entry ways where dirty air (which turns into clean air) goes in then comes out (the air that once was clean is now carbon monoxide which is now exhaled from the body). Now, someone may ask, "Why humans breath out carbon dioxide ?" It's in the air, and its apart of photosythesis. But that's another rant for another day. The nose is seperated into parts called the nostrils. The respiratory system controls what comes into your body through these two seperate entry ways by having nasal hairs. Both nostril entry ways contain thousands of nasal hairs; these hair collects bacteria, dust, and all the other gross stuff that flys into the air on a daily basis. Disgusting, I know. No more bogger dinners for me. Just kidding. Anyway, these external holes lead into internal holes thats connect to the pharynx. The pharynx is also apart of the digestive system, but it plays a vital role in the respiratory system. The pharynx is divided into three parts: nasopharynx, oropharynx, and the laryngopharynx. These words are a mouth full of course, but they serve greater functions. Connect to the trachea is a big pipe that leads to your lungs. Wooooh! Finally we're at the lungs. These two sets of organs are more complex than figuring out women. Ha, imagine that. Each lung sits on both sides of the heart. What's more interesting is that the right lung is a few sizes bigger than the left lung. The right lung has three lobes and the left has two. These two pair of lungs are covered in membranes, a pleural sac with bronchial trees that decends into the lungs. The bronchial tree divides into smaller branches called bronchloles. At the end of the bronchloles, theres a structure that resembles little blue berries--and no you can't eat them. These little berry like structures are called alveolar sacs, which are elastic tissue that stretches and constricts as you breath in and out. There are approximately three-hundred million alveoli that are wrapped in small blood vessels called capillaries. Along with the capillaries, there's connective tissue called the respiratory membrane. This is where gases exchange and a process called pulmonary circulation is done to reoxygenate the blood. And that ladies and gentleman conclude the respiratory system. Now we can move onto stage two, lung cancer. Get it? Stage two? Okay, maybe that was a bad joke... *Insert apology emoji here* Lung cancer is the growth of abnormal cells in either one or both lungs. These cells grow into tumors that can prevent the lungs from performing it's normal functions. The cancer begins with mutation of a cell’s DNA in the lungs cells; this can be cause by normal aging, environmental reasons, smoking, and exposure to gases that are harmful to humans. This kinda throws out the idea of "smoking can only give you lung cancer", no my friend. There are various ways that a human can get lung cancer. And there are two cateorgies of lung cancer: primary lung cancer, which is when the tumor develops in the lung and this is where the cancer starts; then there’s secondary lung cancers, or "metastases". Metastases is when cancer spread from other parts of the body gets to the lung and cause complications there. Now specifically primary lung cancer is called non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in which there are four stages to this type of lung cancer. Stage one is when the cancer is located only in the lung and has not spread to any lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small bean-looking glands that apart of the lymph system. Again, a rant for another day, I promise I'll explain. Stage two the cancer is nearby the lymph nodes. Stage three is cancer is in the lymph nodes and in the middle of the chest. Stage three also has two subtypes if cancer has spread to the lymph nodes on the same side of the cancer side it’s called stage three A and if it spread to the opposite side of where the cancer started its called stage three B. Stage four is the most advanced stage of lung cancer spreading to both lungs, the fluid in the area around the lungs, or to another part of the body. This is the deadly side of cancer. The other type of lung cancer is called small cell lung cancer (SCLC), this type of lung cancer has stages involving just one part of the lung and nearby lymph nodes. Stage two which is called extensive stage, where the lung cancer has spread to other organs in the body. And guess what? Only about 85 percent of people of lung cancer are diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer and 15 percent are diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. Treatment for non-small cell lung cancer is surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and targeted treatment along with medications. Treatment for small cell lung cancer are chemotherapy and radiation therapy. And that's all folks! Sound off in the comments below.