[ad_1]
MovieMagic Kathy griffin
Kathy Griffin shared a difficult news last week: Although she had never smoked, she was diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer and was going to have surgery to remove part of her left lung.
While the majority of lung cancer diagnoses occur in people who smoke, a small but growing proportion of patients are non-smokers.
“It’s a lot more common than people think,” Cleveland Clinic lung cancer specialist Dr Nathan Pennell told PEOPLE. Of the 200,000 Americans a year who are diagnosed with lung cancer, about 10% of men and 15% of women have never smoked, although these percentages are likely higher because the data is a few years behind. he explains.
RELATED: Kathy Griffin Reveals Lung Cancer Diagnosis, Will Undergo Surgery: “Doctors Are Very Optimistic”
Pennell says researchers are unsure whether the increase in lung cancer cases among non-smokers is due to the fact that “it’s really more common and more people are suffering from it, or if it’s just a higher percentage of people with lung cancer who are non-smokers because fewer people are Less than 15% of adults in the United States now smoke, which is fantastic, so a higher percentage of cases of lung cancer in the past five or six years are non-smokers. “
But usually “the only thing you need to get lung cancer is your lungs,” he says.
Here’s what you need to know about lung cancer in non-smokers.
How do non-smokers get lung cancer?
It is not known exactly how non-smokers develop lung cancer, says Pennell, but “there are a number of risk factors other than smoking for lung cancer.”
“There is definitely a component to family history,” he says. “Radon, which is a colorless, odorless gas found in the basements of most people in the United States, is probably the second lung cancer risk factor behind tobacco. It is something that everyone now tests when they sell a house, but for the elderly it was not routinely tested when they were growing up and they could have been exposed to it. And industrial pollution and stuff as heavy metals can certainly play a role as well. “
What are the symptoms of lung cancer?
Unfortunately, lung cancer is difficult to diagnose early in non-smokers.
“We have screening CT scans, but that’s only for people who have smoked at least 30 packs a year and are over 50,” says Pennell. “For people who have smoked less than that, or who have never smoked, there is no screening.”
RELATED: Kathy Griffin Speaks in First Video Update Since Lung Surgery, Receives Love Outpouring: ‘Pray For You’
Part of the diagnosis of lung cancer in non-smokers comes down to “luck,” he says.
“If they go to the emergency room because they had a bicycle or car accident and they had scans, doctors might spot a lump in their lungs,” he says. Otherwise, people may develop a bad cough or cough up blood, which would indicate lung problems, but “unfortunately most of the time when you develop symptoms of your lung cancer it is more advanced at this stage and longer. difficult to cure. “
Griffin was lucky on his side and said his doctors noticed his lung cancer during a regular check-up.
What does the treatment usually consist of?
For those like Griffin with stage 1 lung cancer that has not spread outside the lungs, “the typical surgery is a lobectomy,” says Pennell.
“Doctors usually remove the entire lobe of the lung where the tumor is located, leaving the other half still to breathe. And in non-smokers, in particular, you can usually survive very well on three-quarters of your lungs.” , he said. .
All of the lung, not just the tumor itself, has to come out because of the speed at which the cancer is moving.
“Lung cancer is very nasty and it spreads very early on through the lymphatic channels to the lymph nodes,” says Pennell. “The lungs are basically a sort of filtering system for everything you breathe, and have very extensive lymph nodes and lymph nodes. So it has been shown very conclusively that simply removing the part of the lung that contains the tumor has a much higher recurrence rate than removal of the entire lung lobe, which also removes all lymph nodes and tissues. “
RELATED VIDEO: Kathy Griffin Reveals Lung Cancer Diagnosis, Will Undergo Surgery: “Doctors Are Very Optimistic”
But if the cancer really hasn’t spread – which doctors will have a better idea of once the tumor is removed – surgery is usually sufficient. If it is released from the lungs, however, patients might need additional treatments like chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
What does recovery look like after lung removal surgery?
As of 2021, a lobectomy is a minimally invasive surgery, says Pennell, and has “very short recovery times.”
“Often people are only hospitalized 48 hours and within a month they feel 75% better. And in three months they feel more or less one hundred percent again. “
Although you “lose some of your excess exercise or breathing capacity,” he adds, it won’t have much noticeable effect unless the patient is a professional athlete.
“People can even live with just one lung, honestly. Especially if they’re healthy.”
How can we improve outcomes for non-smokers with cancer?
Pennell wants people to know that “non-smokers absolutely get lung cancer.”
“It’s a lot more common than people think,” he says. “And we need to do a lot more research to try to help screen for that, because at the moment there is really no way to identify lung cancer in non-smokers, except again, by luck.”
[ad_2]
Source link