Smoking increases from 10 to 25 times the risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer. This is by far the main risk factor.

Other factors may also play a role, such as:

* Secondhand smoke;
* Exposure to carcinogens (asbestos, radon, gasoline fumes, etc.).
* Smoke wood stove;
* Frequent exposure to air pollution;
* Have a diet low in fruits and vegetables.

Preventing

* Do not smoke or quit.
* Avoid secondhand smoke.
* Adopt an anticancer diet (more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, less red meats and sausages; avoid excess calories).
* In an area where radon levels are high, to analyze the air in his house to check the radon level.

Treatments

Treatment depends on several factors: the type of cancer (small cell or not), the degree of progress or “stage” of cancer, the health of the person and, obviously, what the person wants reached.

Medical treatment

* Small cell cancer. It usually offers a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
* Cancer non-small cell. Surgery if the tumor is localized and can be extracted. Chemotherapy or radiotherapy if the tumor is advanced, to slow its growth.
* Psychological and social support. The psychological and social support can help the person with cancer to have a better quality of life. Sometimes it helps to prolong life.

The risk of exposure to snuff does not end when you turn off the cigarette. It is well known the danger faced by passive smokers inhaling the smoke that surrounds them: no safe level of exposure. But what happens when white cloud that disappears? Not only is a bad smell in hair or clothes.

The residual cigarette smoke can also cause cancer. A new study, published in ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ ( ‘PNAS’), warning of what he calls “third-hand smoke”, ie, “residual [...] that nicotine has been absorbed by certain areas. It seems that it reacts with nitrous acid present in the environment and, as a result of this, form a kind of nitrosamines which are carcinogens.

In reaching this conclusion, experts from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at San Francisco (USA), took a series of samples in the truck drivers who had years of smoking over multiple paths and compared it with those obtained in the laboratory.

The cellulose used in various tests showed “presence of snuff-specific carcinogenic nitrosamines (TSNA, by its initials in English) 10 times,” the investigation, which recommended more attention to possible chemical reactions that can occur in the spaces. In fact, the environment may become more toxic over time and the largest accumulation of nicotine in rugs or carpet, for example.

Also this week, the prestigious journal Archives of Internal Medicine has published another work on the risks of environmental smoke in this case, is based on the risk faced by women exposed at home to bad fumes from their husbands .

After studying a cohort of almost 15,500 citizens of Hong Kong, non-smokers and aged between 65 and 74 years, scientists, led by Chi C. Leung and from different centers of that region in China, underscore the presence of a tight link between passive smoking and the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Some years ago, in 1996, a Spanish study came to a conclusion quite similar.

These data are particularly relevant in countries like China, where consumption of snuff is heavily unbalanced: 60% of men smoke, compared to 4% of women. Cigarettes, thus affecting the health of them silently. “Passive smoking accounted for 13.7% of active TB cases in this sample,” the work. This exposure can cause respiratory or other diseases including diabetes and coronary disorders, add a comment reported by the magazine cited the American Medical Association.

Two separate papers, as well as the editorial said, show two clear scientific evidence for banning the consumption of snuff in enclosed public places and on transport, and even at home. These are measures that protect the health of smokers, assets and liabilities, and that promote cessation of use of the former.
Letting her help

Besides cleaning the air, fighting this addiction is another major public health objectives of governments around the world. Advertising campaigns, education and proposals that support the financing of nicotine replacement therapies or specific drugs such as bupropion or varenicline. Precisely on this last topic concerns a new work, published in ‘PLoS Medicine’ and signed by an anti snuff guru, Simon Chapman.

The professor of Public Health, University of Sydney (Australia), among other charges has sustained the director of the journal Tobacco Control ‘, highlights that the majority of smokers who manages to overcome his habit will no more help than their willingness and effort.

In this sense, the paper denounces the strategy of a pharmaceutical industry bent on selling its product and, as a side effect is “medicalized” smoking. “The people lose confidence in their ability to change practices that are not healthy,” he adds.

“They should repeat smokers who spend withdrawal and gradually reduce consumption are the most common among those who manage to quit. Most were surprised to find that quitting is easy or somewhat difficult,” supports the controversial article.

This cancer is one that takes more lives annually and affects people 40 and older. Since 85% of those who suffer are smokers, snuff is the major risk factor for developing it. Only one of every eight people who suffer are not smokers.

There are also other substances such as asbestos, uranium or radon is a colorless, odorless gas that builds up in homes and comes from the stoves, which are also risk factors for lung cancer.

Other risk factors include industrial pollution, smoke from factories or cars or hormonal factors of the person that make it more susceptible to developing it. A risk factor can also be the presence of scars in the lung, caused by surgery, bullets or knives.

They are also risk factors:

- Power when you include diets rich in saturated fats.
- Obviously smoking or live with people who smoke, since cigarette smoke contains many carcinogens.
- Failure to use protective masks or special clothing when working with hazardous materials like asbestos.
- Genetic predisposition, when parents have had lung cancer.

One of the measures to prevent lung cancer is quit smoking, since some studies showed that with some weeks of abstinence, begin to heal wounds that may be precancerous and between five to ten years of leaving the drug, cancer risk is slightly higher than for people who have never smoked.

Researchers have discovered several causes of lung cancer and most are related to the use of snuff.

Cigarettes. Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer. Harmful substances, called carcinogens in snuff, damage cells in the lungs. Over time, damaged cells may become cancerous. The probability that a smoker will develop lung cancer is affected by the age at which smoking began, by the time the person has smoked, the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the force with which the smoker inhales. Quitting smoking greatly reduces a person’s risk of developing lung cancer.

Cigars and pipes. People who smoke cigars and pipes have a higher risk of lung cancer than nonsmokers. The number of years a person smokes, the number of pipes or cigars smoked per day and the force with which the person inhales all affect the risk of developing lung cancer. Even the smoking of cigars and pipe do not inhale are at increased risk of lung cancer, mouth and other types.

Snuff smoke in the environment. The possibility of developing lung cancer increases with exposure to tobacco snuff in the air: the smoke in the air when someone else is smoking. The snuff smoke exposure in the environment is called second hand smoking or passive smoking or involuntary.

Radon. Radon is an invisible radioactive gas, odorless and tasteless, that occurs naturally in soil and rocks. It can damage the lungs, which can lead to lung cancer. People who work in mines may be exposed to radon and, in some parts of the country, radon in homes also. Smoking increases the risk of further lung cancer in people who already have the risk from exposure to radon. A kit for home use to measure radon levels in homes is for sale at most hardware stores. The home test for radon is relatively easy to use and not expensive. After correcting the problem of radon, the risk disappears completely.

Asbestos. Asbestos is the name of a group of minerals that occur naturally as fibers and are used in some industries. Asbestos fibers tend to break easily into particles that can float in the air and stick to clothes. When particles are inhaled, they can lodge in the lungs, damaging cells and increasing the risk of lung cancer. Studies have shown that workers who have been exposed to large amounts of asbestos have a risk of developing lung cancer is 3 or 4 times that of workers who have not been exposed to asbestos. This exhibition has been observed in such industries as shipbuilding, asbestos mining and manufacturing, insulation work and brake repair. The risk of lung cancer is even higher among asbestos workers who smoke too. Asbestos workers should use protective equipment provided by the company and continue to labor practices and recommended safety procedures.

Pollution. Researchers have found an association between lung cancer and exposure to certain air pollutants, such as products resulting from the combustion of diesel and other fossil fuels. However, this relationship has not been clearly defined and is conducting further research.

Lung diseases. Some lung diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), increase a person’s chances of developing lung cancer. Lung cancer tends to develop in areas of the lung that are scarred from TB.

Personal history. The person who has had lung cancer once is more likely to develop a second lung cancer when compared with someone who has never had. Quitting smoking after being diagnosed with lung cancer can prevent the development of a second lung cancer.
Researchers continue to study the causes of lung cancer and continue to look for ways to prevent it. We know that the best way to prevent lung cancer is to quit (or never start). As soon as one stops smoking, the better. Even if you have smoked for many years, it is never too late to benefit from quitting.

Nicotine potentiates the carcinogenic effect of other substances from smoke snuff and the effects of carcinogens in the environment.

Nicotine acts on the mechanism of apoptosis, or cell death, preventing the cells to commit suicide. When it comes to cancer cells does the same thing which causes or encourages the formation of lung cancer.

In addition to snuff, there are other substances mentioned above which are listed now:

Asbestos: people who work with asbestos are seven times more likely to develop cancer than those who do not maintain contact with it. These people have a type of cancer called mesothelioma, which occurs in the pleura. In recent years, governments have banned the use of this material for commercial and industrial products. When combined with asbestos exposure to smoking, it increases their chances of getting cancer from 50 to 90 times.

Cancer-causing agents in the workplace: an occupational risk group are the miners. They work with materials that, when inhaled, can damage your lungs. Such substances are radioactive minerals such as uranium, and workers exposed to chemicals such as arsenic, vinyl chloride, nickel chromates, coal based products, mustard gas and chloromethyl ethers. People working in these conditions should be careful to avoid exposure to these agents.

Other factors would be those that have produced some damage to the lung and predispose them to cancer, as having suffered tuberculosis, silicosis or berilosis (diseases, the latter two, caused by inhalation of certain minerals).

Another reason that favors the growth of cancer cells would be the excess or deficit of vitamin A.

Noting the risk factors seem easy to prevent this disease. The no smoking or quit is the most effective measure in preventing cancer.