At times, cells of the lung begin growing speedily in an unexplained manner, and this situation leads to lung cancer. Cancer can develop in any lung location, and it’s the significant cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in America, China, and Canada.
There are mainly two kinds of lung cancer. Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), the reason for around 10%-15% of all lung cancer. Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) causes the remaining.
At present, 8.2 million people all over the globe die from cancer every year. Though, most of the common cancers can be prevented with a healthy lifestyle. It all starts from making wholesome, healthy selections and avoiding stuff that is responsible for causing cancer.
How to prevent small cell lung cancer?
Small cell lung cancer is a kind of cancer that develops in the lungs. Lungs are a pair of spongy organs located inside the chest that pulls in oxygen when you inhale and release carbon dioxide at the time of exhaling.
Lung cancers are one of the prominent causes of cancer deaths globally. Here are excellent tips on how you can prevent lung cancer.
There’s no proven way to prevent small cell lung cancer, but you can minimize your risk if you:
- Don’t smoke: If you don’t smoke, then don’t start. Also, advise your kids not to smoke so that they can get a path to avoid this prominent risk factor causing lung cancer. Start talking about the consequences of smoking with your young ones early so that they understand how to react to peer pressure.
- Quit smoking: If you are an occasional smoker or regularly smoke, it is time to quit smoking now. Stop smoking minimizes the risk of small cell lung cancer, even if you’ve smoked for the past several years. Consult with your healthcare provider about tips and quit-smoking aids that can help you stop. Alternatives include medications, nicotine replacement items, and support groups.
- Check the radon levels of your home: Did you test the radon levels in your home? You need to check the levels, primarily if you work or live in an area where radon is known to be an issue. If the area has high radon levels, you can look for solutions to make your home safer. For getting information on radon testing, you can contact a local chapter of the American Lung Association or the local department of public health.
- Avoid secondhand smoke: If you are working or living with smokers, ask them to quit. Or simply urge them to smoke outside. You are advised to avoid places where generally people smoke, such as restaurants, pubs, and bars, and look for smoke-free options.
- Avoid carcinogens at workplaces: Take necessary precautions to safeguard yourself from coming into contact with toxic chemicals at the workplace. Pursue your employer’s precautions. For instance, always wear a face mask for safety if given or advised to wear it. Consult your health provider about what more you can do to make yourself safer at work. The risk of small cell lung damage from workplace carcinogens becomes higher if you smoke.
- Include more fruits and vegetables in your regular diet: Pick a healthy and nutritious diet with a range of vegetables and fruits. Adding sources of vitamins and nutrients to your routine diet would be the best. Avoid consuming high doses of vitamins pills, as they may harm your lungs. For instance, scholars hoping to lower the risk of small cell lung cancer in pro smokers provided them with beta carotene supplements. Outcomes displayed that the supplements raised the risk of cancer in big smokers.
- Positively Exercise four days a week: If you are a lazy person and don’t like to exercise regularly, there are high chances your lungs can get harmed. So, start out slowly and try to exercise most or at least four days a week.
Read: Ultimate Guide to Stomach Cancer
What causes small cell lung cancer?
Both small-cell carcinoma and combined small-cell carcinoma include several kinds of cells that develop and grow in various ways. They are marked depending on how the cells looks-like under a microscope. There are mainly two types of lung cancers: Small-cell carcinoma or oat cell cancer and Combined small-cell carcinoma. Below is the list of factors that cause small-cell lung cancer.
- Tobacco consumption is the primary cause of both small-cell lung cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer. Although, small-cell lung cancer is more firmly connected to smoking than non-small cell lung cancer.
- Secondhand tobacco consumption is another significant risk factor for small-cell lung cancer. People living or working with a smoker have around a 30% chance of developing non-small cell lung cancer and a 60% chance of developing small cell lung cancer compared to people who are not living or working with smokers or secondhand smokers.
- All kinds of lung cancer frequently occur in people who work in uranium mines, but small-cell lung cancer is the most commonly prevailing. The chances of the prevalence of small-cell lung cancer get an increase in uranium miners who smoke.
- Coming in contact with radon (an inert gas that builds from the decay of uranium) has been commonly known to cause small-cell lung cancer.
- Asbestos exposure broadly raises the risk of small-cell lung cancer. Combining smoking of tobacco and asbestos exposure increases the chances even further.
Treatments for small-cell lung cancer
Has anyone beaten small cell lung cancer? This Is the most common query from the people, and the answer is yes, many people. So, if you are also facing any small cell lung cancer symptoms, you should consult with your healthcare provider. Urologists use various treatments depending on small cell lung cancer staging. A few of them are given below:
- Standard treatment methods of small-cell lung cancer include a combination of a cisplatin-containing regimen with chemotherapy. Treatment cycles are generally recurring every three weeks. Patients get complete treatment from four to six cycles.
- Another treatment that urologists recommend is radiotherapy. Urologists say that the radiotherapy to the chest may begin as soon as possible, or it may be provided later in the course of treatment. The treatment depends on factors like the person’s overall health and the stage of cancer.
- Radiation and chemotherapy is a sequential-radiation treatment that may be provided to the patient, followed by chemotherapy. Though, in comparative studies, the sooner the radiation therapy begins concurrently with chemotherapy (as soon as the first span of chemotherapy), the better the result.
- Suppose the disease has prevailed in a limited amount, and the patient has had an excellent response to chemotherapy. In that case, radiation therapy may be provided to the patient’s brain to reduce the possibility of small-cell lung cancer prevailing in the brain. This treatment technique is called prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI). It is generally given post-completion of chemotherapy to the patient’s brain and radiotherapy to the thorax. As the radiation doses are shallow and the treatment span is pretty short, the risk of side effects of this therapy is minimal.
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