What is lung cancer?

Why the lung is very sensitive to pollutants, mainly from tobacco smoke? What happens exactly when does cancer develop? As the body is constructed?

Basic function of the lungs and the origin and incidence of lung cancer offers the following text. He can patients and their families to help understand the disease better. For those interested in offering links to more detailed information and the information used in creating the text sources.

The word cancer is a large group of very different diseases with one thing in common: the uncontrolled division of cells of an organ or tissue. What emerges is a tumor, in German: a tumor.
So-called solid tumors arise from cells of a single organ. They can be benign or malignant, also known as benign or malignant. Lung cancer is one of the malignant solid tumors. Benign tumors of the lung are rare.

Malignant tumors are characterized by the fact that they control the normal growth of the organism are removed. The altered cells proliferate unchecked. They grow into surrounding tissue and destroy it. You can enter lymphatic vessels and bloodstream and enter the blood and lymph to other organs of the body. There you can locate the cells and solid tumors re-grow - it caused secondary tumors, called metastases. Even lung cancer may be affected resulting in metastasis to lymph nodes, for example, brain or bone.

In contrast to solid tumors are leukemias, lymphomas, originating from the bone marrow and the cells of the hematopoietic and the immune system and affect the entire body. Some lymphomas may arise from tumor cells, however, nodes or tumors that are similar to solid tumors. Such lymphoma can also affect the lungs, they are not as lung cancer in the strict sense and are therefore not discussed in this text. Patients who are diagnosed with lymphoma in the chest find more information in the text " Malignant lymphoma ".

Changes in genetic material
Cancer is caused by a change in the genetic material or in individual cells. From a first cell of the damaged lung tissue caused by uncontrolled growth, a tumor, a tumor. In general, many factors, external and internal, cooperate to transform a cell into a cancer cell. Just as there is "the" cancer, as few can speak also of "the" cause of cancer. The final common pathway of damage and disruption is always a change in control of cell growth. It leads to uncontrolled cell division and the loss of tissue-specific features.

For lung cancer, tobacco smoking is regarded as by far the main risk factor. From studies we know that some chemicals, radiation, and an - albeit minor - role to play. Other known cancer risk factors appear to be involved in the pathogenesis of this tumor type, however, or the influence is not sufficient as yet been proven. More, the Cancer Information Service in the section " Risk Factors: What causes cancer? " compiled.

At the age will repair skills from the human organism. Damaged or otherwise altered cells may be less well degraded. This is one reason that cancers are more common in the elderly than in younger age. Of developing lung cancer is usually people in the second half of life. Who started very early to smoke, you can expect, however, have already been made earlier with increase of disease risk.