Lung cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer in the world. The Cancer Research Center in England, a for-profit organization (whose goal is to improve the lives of cancer patients), released a study done on lung cancer patients that have survived 1, 5, and 10 years after diagnosis. They found out that 33% of women and 29% of men survive lung cancer after one year of diagnosis. After five years 9. 3% of women and 7. 8% of men survive, after 10 years 5. 9% of women and 4. 9% of men survive lung cancer. The survival rates drop off after a year because the cancer usually metastasizes into other organs, or the treatment wasn’t effective.
Most of the treatments won’t get all of the cancerous cells, thus the cancer can resurface at any time. Lung cancer is one of the deadliest cancers because of its proximity to major organs. The lungs are located in the middle of the chest, right next to the heart, diaphragm, stomach and intestines. When cancer starts to reach its more advanced stages it spreads to these organs. Once the cancer starts to spread (or metastasize) to the other organs it is almost impossible to treat. After the treatments most of the organs will be weak or damaged beyond repair because of the radiation used to find and treat the patients.
When the tumor is removed by surgery, the doctor has to take mass from around the tumor. This means that portions of the organs that contain the tumor have to be removed. The size of the tumor will determine the size of the mass taken from the other organs. The Cancer Research Center UK, along with the NHS (National Health Services), has created laws to prevent the spread of lung cancer caused by smoking. In 2006 Parliament passed the Health Act. This act is designed to prevent second hand smoke by limiting the places individuals would be able to “light up. ” This law banned smoking in public places such as pubs, restaurants, hotels etc.
The law then created penalties associated with business owners not enforcing those laws (the judge decides the amount for the penalty). Later the act was amended to make it illegal for anyone to smoke in a car containing a minor. This act is has prevented over 1 billion cigarettes from being sold in 2007 but this law is still in the testing stages. There have been improvements such as a reduction in childhood asthma, premature births and heart attacks. The problem is that the real effects aren’t supposed to be seen until 2024. These laws are designed to fix the superficial problems associated with lungcancer.
They only help those who have not already developed the disease. Once someone is diagnosed with lung cancer they are placed into a queue. This queue on average takes about 30 days from a patient to go from diagnosis to their first treatment. The delay from diagnosis to treatment results from a lack of resources. This lack of resources comes from the lack of funds given to hospitals by the NHS. The NHS spends on average 104. 3 billion pounds per year on hospital related equipment and research. The lack of funding would be the problem if funding actually showed some impact on the lung cancer survival rates. In the US 2.
5 trillion dollars is spent on healthcare. This is almost ten times the amount England pays for theirs. The survival rate of lung cancer in the US is about 10% after five years, the survival rate for a patient that has been diagnosed for ten years is around 5%. This is about the same survival rate as England even though ten times more money is spent. The problem does not reside with the amount of money that is given to these medical institutions. The problem lies with the ability to find cancer cells inside of the lungs. The laws that have been created to prevent lung cancer have only scratched the surface.
The real problem lies with the medical fields ability (all over the world) to find the cancer before it metastasizes. In 2012 scientists met at the Geneva conference, which is a place where scientists from all over the world meet and discuss their achievements over the past year. Three new ways to detect lung cancer sprung up. The first test is called the Digital Chest Tomography. It is designed to have the exact same function as a CT scanner, but it uses less radiation and it is cheaper to use. Dr. Luca Bertolaccini and Dr. Alberto Terzi are doctors from Italy.
They saw that it could be used to look at the lungs, and it would produce the same images as a CT scan. CT scans use large doses of radiation, this causes the patient’s life expectancy be reduced by 20%. The doctors then went to work, where they took a sample of 1800 smokers that have not had malignancy in the past five years. These patients’ ages ranged from 47 to 70 with an average age of 61. The machine was used on the patients first. The doctors scanned the lungs to see if there were any abnormalities. When the doctors found something they sent the patients to a CT scan to confirm their findings.
The Digital Chest Tomography ended up being more accurate less expensive and it even used less radiation to take the images. The DCT used a fraction of the radiation. The overall cost is significant as well; the DCT costs about 44 euros per use while the CT scan costs 227 euros. This machine is a new advancement in lung cancer detection because it has the ability to detect cancerous cells inside of the lungs without zapping them with excessive radiation. The cost is low enough so the scan will not break their wallet, and it takes only 11 seconds to complete. This machine is still very new, as it was the first study conducted.
More research has to be done, but it looks like a viable solution for relieving some of the cost associated with lung cancer. The second discovery is by Dr. Irmgard Irminger-Finger and colleagues. They found that they could look for the antibodies produced when the body starts to fight the lung cancer. In recent years cancer was detected by finding a protein in the body, this protein is created by the cancerous cells. Antibodies are produced by the body when a foreign substance (cell, virus, surgical tool, etc. ) is left inside of the body. These antibodies are the killer cells; they are created to eliminate whatever they come across.
Dr. Irmgard Irminger-Finger took 60 patients (patients with or without cancer) and 40 control patients (with cancer). When she did the blood test she found that she was able to detect the cancer cells with 87% accuracy and 68% specificity (their location inside of the body). The antibodies are produced long before a tumor starts to appear, this allows doctors to find the cancer before it even shows up on CT scans or even the DCT. This study has a very positive outlook, but it is still in trial stages. More trials are being done to check and double check the results.
This trial is an improvement because it is able to detect lung cancer early. The third test was done at the Israel Institute of Technology where an artificial nose that mimics a dog’s nose was created. Dogs are able to smell cancer from people; they are 35 to 40% accurate in distinguishing people with and without cancer. This piece of technology is able to smell VOC which are volatile organic compounds. These compounds are released through a person’s exhale. This nose is designed to differentiate from VOCs that are normal to a person’s breath and those produced when someone has lung cancer.
This nose has been going through trials and studies since 2007; this test was designed to determine if doctors can detect lung cancer in a non-invasive way. The study conducted used 74 patients that have some sort of tumor inside of their lungs, whether it be benign (not growing) or malignant (growing). The nose was 88% accurate in distinguishing between a benign and malignant tumor. The device was 86% accurate in identifying the malignant and 93% accurate in identifying the benign tumors. The data shows that the nose is a new, accurate way to detect lung cancer in patients.
It can even tell what kind of tumor a person has. Different cancers have different VOCs; this means that the nose can be used to detect different cancers all over the body. Scientists are testing to see if the nose will be able to detect types of skin cancer. The fourth test was done by Vadim Backman, professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. He designed a way to look at cheek cells with a light and determine whether or not the person is at risk for lung cancer. This test is designed to take a quick test and see if smokers are at risk of lung cancer.
This test can take a cell and look at any changes that are going on inside of it. Under a normal microscope these cells wouldn’t look any different, but his technique called partial wave spectroscopic or (PWS). It allows scientists to look into the cell further than the superficial layer. Cells have multiple parts inside of them, this test can see changes in those parts and depending on the changes made, it can determine if the patient has cancer. The study conducted consisted of 135 patients, these patients were smokers that were cancerous and were not cancerous.
They were not differentiated by age, race or gender. The test showed a significant promise, it was just as successful as other cancer related swabs (such as a pap smear for women). The doctors still have to do more tests on people to determine the accuracy of their data. This looks like a very promising way to detect lung cancer because it doesn’t harm the patient in any way. All of these new technological advancements are still in their trial stages. The specialists that created these devices still don’t have enough information on the risks.
Smoking has been connected to lung cancer since 1951, but it was not until 50 years later that the government started implementing laws to reduce the number of smokers. It was not until 2009 that the Geneva conference dedicated a portion of their time to lung cancer. NHS spends billions of pounds year on lung cancer. Without these technological advances the wait time from diagnosis to treatment will remain the same, it will stay at an average of 30 days. By keeping the Health Act enacted, the amount of people diagnosed with lung cancer will decrease. As technology advances the amount of people
lost due to late diagnoses and delayed treatments will also continue to decrease. It took a while for England to start fighting this deadly disease, but they are on the right track to lower and prevent death due to this horrible epidemic.
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Annotated Bibliography Israel National News. N. p. , n. d. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. <http://www. israelnationalnews. com/News/News. aspx/143840#. UTzAchxJ55o>. Researchers at the Israel institute of technology are researching a new way to detect lung cancer. They have invented an electronic nose that detects Organic compounds released by a person’s exhale. These organic compounds are able to tell if a person has lung cancer. Researchers are looking for faster and less harmful ways to detect lung cancer. There is a need for a new way to detect lung, head and neck cancer.