.gif)
When asbestos dust is initially inhaled through either the nasal passage or the mouth, it immediately begins to get lodged within the internal tissues that surround the lungs. This trapped dust begins to cause irritation and inflammation, as it activates a process that produces several different chemicals. These chemicals are commonly known as cytokines. Cytokines induce cellular and inter-cellular changes within the lungs and the mesothelial cells. The combination of these cytokines together with the tiny particles of lodged asbestos dust, begin to cause a process that proceeds to a malignant transformation within the once healthy set of lungs.
There exists within the body various sets of genes that cause either growth promotion, or growth suppression. These genes can easily be damaged by either internal or external changes within the body. When growth promoting cells either lose their ability to promote growth, or the growth of these cells is accelerated, the growth suppression cells no longer pay attention to the bodies tumour suppression cells. This in turn causes the cells to multiply at an accelerated rate. All human body cells are designed to divide a certain number of times before they eventually die, leaving the cells that have had their growth accelerated, more likely to become cancerous.
Very few damaged cells actually become cancerous at this stage, leaving the small number of cells that have become cancerous to divide into even more cancerous cells. When cancerous cells divide, they help the cancer to spread throughout the affected lungs at an exceptionally fast rate. Asbestos related lung cancer takes many years to mutate within the bodies organs before it is usually diagnosed, which means that when a patient is eventually diagnosed with the disease, it is usually found to be in its advanced stages and in need of immediate treatment. There are various modern-day treatments that are used to treat asbestos related lung cancer.
Chemotherapy, Immunotherapy, and Stereotactic Body Radiosurgery are among the more common treatments used to treat asbestos related lung cancer, as previously where they have been used, a reasonable degree of success has been achieved. Surgery is another option, although it is usually only considered as a last option in the treatment of patients with asbestos related lung cancer, and only after all other forms of treatment have either failed, or have not shown a complete success. Usually, surgery results in an exceptionally low five-year to ten-year after-op survival rate for most patients.
''Sharing Is Caring''
No comments:
Post a Comment