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Lung
Cancer
Lung cancer is the leading cause of many cancer deaths in men around the world.
In several countries lung cancer has become the second or third cause among women. It is one disease, which is not infectious and cannot be passed on to other people. However over the years this silent killer has increased its toll on lives with staggering figures. Only about 14 % of all people who develop lung caner survive for more then 5 years.
Cancer can occur when normal cells undergo a transformation that causes them to grow and eventually multiply without control. The abnormal tissue grows to forms a mass or tumour that is different from the surrounding tissues. This growth or tumour becomes very dangerous as it is an unregulated growth. They also start stealing most of nutrients, Oxygen and space from the healthy cells and literally starve them of essential elements. Most lung tumours are malignant. This also means that they invade and destroy the healthy tissues around them.
Cigarette smoking is known to be the major cause of lung cancers in all regions of the world. The risk of developing the disease increases with the number of cigarettes smoked by and the age at which they stared to smoke.
If a person stops smoking, the risk of lung cancer is greatly reduced so that after about fifteen years his or her chances of developing the disease are similar to that of a non-smoker.
Recent studies done relating smoking and cancer have also shown that inhaling other people's cigarette smoke, "known as passive smoking", slightly increases the risk of lung disease and cancer. Hence, most of the Governments have worked hard cracking down on all commercial cigarette advertisement campaigns in the country. The Tamil-Nadu government has taken this no smoking campaign a step further by introducing heavy fine on citizens found smoking in public places. Smoking is now prohibited on all major airlines of the world and public places like hotel lobbies, buses, trains and cinema halls.
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