Cancer Information

Posts Tagged ‘the lungs’

Lung cancer can be treated by various therapies that are often used in combination to provide optimal outcomes for patients. Surgical resection is the surgical process in which the tumor, and is usually recommended if the cancer has not metastasized (or spread) outside the lungs to other parts of the body.

There are several options for doing that may involve resection of minimally invasive surgery or full operation. The technique used will depend on many factors, especially the size and stage of cancer and tumors are accessible to a surgeon.

Thoracotomy performed by a surgeon makes an incision through the chest wall and the average sternotomy performed by entering the chest cavity through the sternum. The second method is usually used in surgery for lung cancer, but they simply involve the discomfort and prolonged patient stay in hospital with a recovery period longer.

Read the rest of this entry »

# Tests magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses powerful magnets and radio waves to make modern computers detailed cross-sectional images. These images are similar to those produced with computed tomography, but are even more accurate in detecting spread of lung cancer to the brain or spinal cord.

# The positron emission tomography (PET): Using a sensitive tracer of low dose that accumulates in cancerous tissues. Bone scans require the injection of a small amount of radioactive substance into a vein. This substance accumulates in abnormal areas of bone that may arise from the spread of cancer.

# Sputum cytology: is examined under the microscope a sample of phlegm to see if it contains cancer cells. * Needle biopsy: A needle is inserted into the mass while the lungs are displayed on a computer tomograph. After removing a sample of the mass and is seen through a microscope for cancer cells.

Read the rest of this entry »

The lungs are the organs responsible for oxygenating the blood and expel carbon dioxide, a waste product produced by the body’s cells. Also participating in other important metabolic and cardiovascular functions. The bronchi, while carrying the inspired air into the lungs. From the trachea are divided on, giving rise to smaller and smaller bronchi to reach the alveoli. The alveoli are tiny sacs surrounded by small-caliber blood vessels (capillaries). Among the air in the alveoli and capillaries where gas exchange occurs.

The lung cancer is a malignant tumor that usually originates in the cells lining the bronchi (bronchial epithelium). It is produced mainly by irritation and chronic inflammation of the bronchial epithelium by external agents (carcinogens), wherein the cigarette smoke. Proceeds from this chronic irritation and genetic mutations occur that lead to rapid and uncontrolled growth of certain cells, called malignant transformation, thus creating a cancer. Finally when we continue to grow the tumor, some cells may travel to other organs of the body, giving rise to metastases.

Read the rest of this entry »

The culture of organ transplantation in the world both in Mexico and in the World is underrated and little is done to try to promote it, which has led to illegal trafficking in them. Many are in favor of giving life when our bodies we no longer are useful, however the note then I will comment opens the door to an interesting debate.

Lynsey Scott, who suffered from cystic fibrosis, received in February 2009 a double lung transplant from a donor who had smoked for 30 years. Scott died of pneumonia in July, this 28 year old British woman received a lung transplant from a donor smoking without knowing it, and it is precisely this that would like to discuss, because in principle the patient receiving a transplant should know that the national you receive is not entirely new, and the fact that the family found out later that the donor was a smoker does not different, I do not think knowing that Scott had refused to receive the lungs.

Read the rest of this entry »