Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Lung Cancer and Blood


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One of the main symptoms of lung cancer is coughing up blood or haemoptysis. This sometimes as a warning sign of an early cancer that could still happen to be curable. Any person coughs blood must observe their family doctor for advice, because the disease account immediately, especially if the person is a smoker is about the age of 40 years.

Some symptoms of lung cancer are caused by a direct effect of the primary tumor to the effects of metastatic tumors in other parts ofthe body, or to troubles of hormones, blood, or other systems affected by the cancer.

If the cancer develops in the airway, it might block airflow, causing breathing troubles. This can cause accumulation of secretions behind the blockage, predisposing the patient to pneumonia. A lot of cancers of lung have a rich blood supply. The surface of the cancer might be fragile, leading to bleeding from the cancer into the airway. This blood might consequently be coughed up.

A number of Lung cancer to the hormone-like substances increase levels of calcium in the blood. This affects the nerves and muscles so that the person suffers from weakness and dizziness.

Several blood tests are done to look for lung cancer "markers", ie the elements in the blood associated with the onset of the disease in context. For example, can be described by variations of the following:

- PTH (parathyroid hormone), blood levels of PTH and PTH-related protein may helpdifferentiated carcinoma of the lung cancer or other diseases of the pleura.

- CEA (carcinogenic antigen)-a-cancer-specific immune system protein that is already in adenocarcinomas, including lung adenocarcinoma. Elevated preoperative levels of CEA usually suggest a poor prognosis. A level of CEA may indicate more than 50 advanced lung cancer and should discourage treatment by resection.

- CYFRA21-1 (cytokeratin fragment 19), a marker protein for cancer.

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