Lung Cancer.

Essay by chunkyHigh School, 10th gradeA+, February 2004

download word file, 7 pages 4.8

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Although lung cancer is the number one cause of death in the US, many Americans still do not realize its significance and how to prevent from being a victim. To understand cancer, it is useful have an idea of how cancerous cells reproduce. Typical cells grow and produce new cells that are required for the body to run properly. However sometimes the development goes off course and more cells are formed than needed. Eventually, the extra cells will add up enough to form one or numerous tumors. These tumors are classified into 2 categories: benign and malignant. The benign tumors are not cancer, they do not spread throughout the body and most of the time can be removed. Malignant tumors, however, are cancer and can be very deadly if not dealt with as soon as possible. Cancer cells from these tumors can break away and enter the bloodstream without difficulty.

They go through a process called metastasis, which is cancer traveling from the original tumor to another part of the body forming additional tumors.

The cancers developed in the lungs are further categorized into two types. They are small cell and non-small cell lung cancer. The non-small cell cancer occurs much more frequently and generally grows slower than small cell. The non-small cells are even further grouped into Adeno carcinoma, Squamous cell carcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. The most common of the three, Adeno carcinoma, occurs about 40% of the time and are found more in women than any other non-small cell lung cancers. Occupying more than 30% of the none-small cells is the slow growing Squamous cell carcinoma. These begin in the bronchial and the disease nodules have a tendency to be clustered together. Finally, the least occurring type is the large cell carcinoma, which is present in 5-15%...