Last December 6 was a sad day for Virginia, her father, Victor, would be celebrating another year of life, but on December 12, 2009, a cancer of lung took his life away.
“We had no idea that daddy had cancer in the lungs. One day he started coughing a lot and when we got to the clinic, he had seizures. He was taken to intensive care, and there, the pulmonologistAfter doing the studies, he informed us that he had cancer in the lungs with metastasis in the brain and there wasn’t much that could be done,” he recalled.
“This happened in October 2009, the pulmonologist He told us that not much could be done and that he could last from days to months, but he only lasted 45 days, since he died on December 12 of the same year,” she said, still affected, despite the years that had passed.
“He always, almost all his life, had smoked and quite a bit,” said the mother of two, who regrets that her father did not get to know his grandchildren, one of them baptized in honor of her grandfather.
High rate of mortality
Even though he cancer breast is the oldest incidence among women and the prostate among men, the cancer of lung is the one with the highest rate of mortality.
According to the American Society Against CancerEvery year, more people die from cancer of lung than for colon, breast and prostate cancers combined. Around 125,070 people will die in the United States from this disease.
“Cancer breast and cancer prostate are the ones that take the lead in relation to incidence of diagnosed cases, this is the case in practically all countries, but the cancer that kills the most, the cancer with greater mortality in world statistics it is the cancer of lung“declared the director of the National Institute of Cancer Rosa Emilia Sánchez Pérez de Tavares (Incart), José Ramírez.
When asked how else it is not the cancer most common is classified as the deadliest, Ramírez explained that it is a tumor aggressive, with a lot of potential to make metastasiswith difficulty in early diagnosis and slow progress (until a few years ago) in the development of therapies and medications.
“The treatments of cancer of lung They have been improving a lot and the expectation of the patient’s life. Today, in relation to treatmentswe are much better than ten years ago. The challenge in the world is still early diagnosis,” he stressed.
Patients arrive late
“As it doesn’t give symptoms In the initial stages, there is no study that helps us detect it (in early stages). A good part of the cases are arriving very late,” said the oncologist with great concern.
He highlighted that, currently, the referral of pulmonologists to the oncologist. Among the treatment options he mentioned surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapydepending on the stage you are in.
habit of smoke
Dr. Ramírez said that the main factor that affects the development of cancer of lung is the habit of smokeboth traditional cigarettes and vape.
“The patient has a cancer in lungs already damaged by cigarettewhich makes it much more difficult treatments“
The doctor defined this type of cancer as “one of the great diseases of the industrialization“.
In the case of Incartcommented that 65% of the patients treated belong to the regimen contributory.
