LUNG CANCER

August 14, 2019

In today's society, people have been prone to diseases such as lung cancer, due to the bad habit that we've been doing until now. We all know that it is bad for us but we still tend to do it because somehow, for us, it felt so good. Over the past years, people especially the youth have been influenced to smoke and we all know that it is the number one factor that causes lung cancer. As the number of percentage in smoking increases, lung cancer also increases. How can we expect that youth nowadays will be a good example when even the older ones are the one teaching them?

Lung cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in one or both lungs. These abnormal cells don't carry out the functions of normal lung cells and don't develop into healthy lung tissue. People that have been experiencing this disease are suffering and worst case scenario, death would take part. About 80% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking and many others are caused by exposure to secondhand smoke because there is a higher chance to have a lung cancer if the person has a history of exposure to inhaled chemicals or other toxins. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 218,527 people in the United States received a lung cancer diagnosis in 2015. Early diagnosis can help a person seek treatment, as early as possible, in the disease's course.

The symptoms in having a lung cancer don't usually occur until the condition has worsen and reached the higher level. So here are the following symptoms that might occur:

appetite loss
changes to a person's voice, such as hoarseness

frequent chest infections, such as bronchitis or pneumonia
lingering cough that may start to get worse
shortness of breath
unexplained headaches
weight loss
wheezing

The treatment of lung cancer depends on its stage and location, as well as the overall health of the patient. There are a lot of possible treatments in this but it is not an assurance that you'll be treated immediately . Therefore, having an early diagnosis is important in order to know what you're going through and in other words, it can be life-saving. Here are the treatments of lung cancer:

Surgery: A doctor may operate to remove cancerous lung tissue and tissue in the surrounding areas where cancer may have spread. This sometimes involves removing a lobe or large segment of the lung in a procedure called a lobectomy.
In severe cases, the surgeon may remove a lung in its entirety. A person can live without a lung, but being in good health prior to surgery helps to improve outcomes after lung removal.
Chemotherapy: This treatment uses drugs to shrink or eradicate cancer cells. These medications target rapidly dividing cells, which makes them ideal for treating cancer.
Chemotherapy treatment has a more significant impact on cancers that have spread to different parts of the body and require a body-wide attack.
However, chemotherapy is a powerful intervention and can have side effects including extreme nausea and weight loss.
Radiation therapy: This approach uses high-energy rays to kill cancerous cells. A doctor may also use radiation to shrink a tumor before removing it surgically.

Economics plays a big role in the society because it involves of decision-making and therefore, it focus and reflects on your personality on being an individual. The relation between economics and lung cancer is when a person is diagnosed in lung cancer, it needs special treatments and medications that comes from the hospital where professional doctors work on. There are therapies that are usually done every month and there are medications that need to be taken everyday.

In the Philippines, smoking is already prohibited in most places and the tax rate of cigarettes has been increased because of the new law that has been implemented (Republic Act No. 10351). The proposal is to increase the tax rate to at least 3 pesos per stick or 60 pesos by pack. How is this link to economics? For instances, if a person buy cigarettes and we all know that the price increases, what the person should do is to learn how to budget and be wiser and should learn how to limit his/her use of cigarettes.

Reference:

6/3/19(June 3,2019), "Senate approves higher taxes on cigarettes, tobacco products",