Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States and many countries over. It’s the first in non-smokers. In the U.S. alone it’s responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 Americans each year. Since exposure to this odorless, colorless and tasteless deadly gas can directly lead to lung cancer it makes sense to talk about the disease too.
New Research Suggests Lung Cancer Can Hide in the Body For up to 20 Years
Photo by Melania Tata (Flickr)
According to some new research, lung cancer may actually hide inside a person’s body for up to 20 years before it expands and becomes more of a problem. The most promising news about this research is that it may eventually help doctors identify early warning signs of lung cancer. That’s important because lung cancer has one of the highest mortality rates of any form of cancer. This is because patients do not generally show symptoms until later stages in the disease. Generally, by the time most lung cancer patients begin to show symptoms it has already progressed beyond a curable state and spread openly.
A total of 40,000 Americans are diagnosed with lung cancer every year, and fewer than 10% of those diagnosed actually survive long enough to see remission. The study author, Charles Swanton says that maybe in time this “devastatingly low” survival rate can be influenced by better prediction methods.
“Survival from lung cancer remains devastatingly low with many new targeted treatments making a limited impact on the disease. By understanding how it develops we’ve opened up the disease’s evolutionary rule book in the hope that we can start to predict its next steps.”
How This Lung Cancer Research Was Conducted
The research was conducted by Cancer Research UK in collaboration with the Rosetrees Trust. To collect all the necessary information they studied lung cancer in several different patients including smokers, ex-smokers and non-smokers.
As a result, they discovered that genetic mistakes can naturally cause the cancer to appear, which can sometimes stay hidden for years at a time. In turn, when the disease finally strikes and begins to grow it does so much more rapidly. Essentially, a cancerous tumor has separate parts all of which are affected differently. So, in cases where cancer treatment might slow or eliminate one part of a tumor, it could fail to do so on another part. It’s this kind of evolutionary tactic tumors use that make cancer so difficult to cure and fight off.
Professor Nic Jones, Cancer Research UK’s chief scientist, says that this new study further solidifies the fact that we need to find cancer as soon as possible when it is a problem.
“This fascinating research highlights the need to find better ways to detect lung cancer earlier when it’s still following just one evolutionary path, If we can nip the disease in the bud and treat it before it has started travelling down different evolutionary routes we could make a real difference in helping more people survive the disease.”
Prevent Lung Cancer: Stop Smoking and Have Your Home Tested for Radon Today
This research also goes to show that you absolutely want to reduce the risk of contracting lung cancer for both yourself and your family. The best way to do this is to stop smoking – if you are smoking – or prevent yourself and your family from being around tobacco smoke. The other way to decrease your risk for lung cancer is to test your home for the presence of radon, and have a mitigation system installed if elevated levels are discovered.
Please remember that radon can exist anywhere and in any type of home, residence or building. It doesn’t matter whether the home is new or old. Even modern homes with radon resistant construction can still be susceptible. Radon is a naturally occuring gas released from common elements – such as Uranium – in the soil and rock underneath our feet. In that respect, it can be a problem anywhere regardless of geographical location.
Long story short, have your home tested as soon as possible or pick up a testing kit at your local hardware store and do-it-yourself.
Via: Design & Trend
