Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Smoking greatly increases the risk of lung cancer, as cigarette smoke damages lung cells over time and can cause cancerous mutations. Signs of lung cancer may include coughing, shortness of breath, and weight loss. Treatment options include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and targeted therapies which treat specific genetic mutations in cancer cells.

1. Lung Cancer
Causes & Effects

2. o Lung cancer is a type of cancer that begins in the lungs. Your lungs are
two spongy organs in your chest that take in oxygen when you inhale and
release carbon dioxide when you exhale. .
o Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United
States, among both men and women. Lung cancer claims more lives each
year than colon, prostate, ovarian, lymph and breast cancers combined.
o People who smoke have the greatest risk of lung cancer. The risk of lung
cancer increases with the length of time and number of cigarettes
smoked. If you quit smoking, even after smoking for many years, you can
significantly reduce your chances of developing lung cancer.

3. o Lung cancer does not really show any signs and symptoms until the cancer is advanced.
o Signs and symptoms of lung cancer may include:
o A new cough that doesn't go away
o Coughing up blood, even a small amount
o Shortness of breath
o Chest pain
o Wheezing
o Hoarseness
o Losing weight without trying
o Bone pain
o Headache
o hanges in a chronic cough or "smoker's cough"

4.  How smoking causes lung cancer ?
 Doctors think that smoking causes lung cancer by damaging the cells that
line the lungs. When you inhale cigarette smoke, which is full of cancer-
causing substances (carcinogens), changes in the lung tissue begin almost
immediately. At first your body may be able to repair this damage. But
with each repeated exposure, normal cells that line your lungs are
increasingly damaged. Over time, the damage causes cells to act
abnormally and eventually cancer may begin.

5. • RadiationSurgery : Radiation therapy can be used alone or with other
lung cancer treatments. Sometimes it's administered at the same time as
chemotherapy.
• Targeted drug therapy : Targeted therapies are newer cancer treatments
that work by targeting specific abnormalities in cancer cells.
• Chemotherapy : Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. One or
more chemotherapy drugs may be administered through a vein in your
arm (intravenously) or taken orally. A combination of drugs usually is
given in a series of treatments over a period of weeks or months, with
breaks in between so that your body can recover.

7. o IN TARGETED THERAPHY :
o Although clinical and histologic features correlate with particular genetic
changes, only molecular testing can definitively identify the mutations
associated with targeted therapy response or resistance.
Additionally, EGFR, KRAS, and ALK mutations are almost always mutually
exclusive (ie, mutations of only 1 of the 3 genes occur within any
individual tumor). Therefore, Quest Diagnostics offers a Lung Cancer
Mutation Panel that tests for mutations in all 3 oncogenes. Individual
tests for mutation detection are also available for each gene.

8.  Mutations that occur only in an egg or sperm cell, or
those that occur just after fertilization, are called new
(de novo) mutations. De novo mutations may explain
genetic disorders in which an affected child has a
mutation in every cell, but has no family history of the
disorder.
 A gene mutation is a permanent change in the DNA
sequence that makes up a gene. Mutations range in size
from a single DNA building block (DNA base) to a large
segment of a chromosome
 Gene mutations occur in two ways: they can be inherited
from a parent or acquired during a person’s lifetime.
Mutations that are passed from parent to child are
called hereditary mutations or germline mutations
(because they are present in the egg and sperm
cells, which are also called germ cells). This type of
mutation is present throughout a person’s life in
virtually every cell in the body.

9. Acquired (or somatic) mutations occur in the DNA of individual cells at some
time during a person’s life. These changes can be caused by environmental
factors such as ultraviolet radiation from the sun, or can occur if a mistake is
made as DNA copies itself during cell division. Acquired mutations in
somatic cells (cells other than sperm and egg cells) cannot be passed on to
the next generation.
Mutations may also occur in a single cell within an early embryo. As all the
cells divide during growth and development, the individual will have some
cells with the mutation and some cells without the genetic change. This
situation is called mosaicism.

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