Lung cancer with symptoms such as cough, chest pain, back pain... is usually in the late stages, most patients discover it by chance through regular health check-ups.
"The majority of lung cancer patients are currently diagnosed at a late stage, so the mortality rate is high, leading among all types of cancer," said Dr. Nguyen Hoang Binh, Head of the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Cho Ray Hospital, at the Hoan My Saigon Hospital Scientific Conference on October 21.
According to statistics from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (Globocan) in 2020, lung cancer ranks second in the number of new cases globally in both sexes, after breast cancer. The number of deaths due to lung cancer leads with nearly 1.8 million deaths each year. In Vietnam, lung cancer has the second highest mortality rate after liver cancer.
According to Dr. Binh, cancer treatment has made many advances today. In particular, surgery has developed from open chest surgery to laparoscopic and robotic surgery, helping patients undergo surgery more gently, both treating cancerous tumors and ensuring lung function, reducing post-operative pain complications. The results of early stage surgery are getting better, helping to reduce mortality rates, and the survival time over 5 years is gradually increasing.
In addition, science is increasingly developing many new and highly effective drugs. Depending on the stage of the disease and the condition of each patient, doctors choose appropriate treatment methods such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, palliative treatment...
Currently, Vietnam uses next-generation gene sequencing to help find each person's gene mutations. From there, doctors choose the appropriate drugs for each type of gene mutation, helping to personalize treatment and achieve high efficiency.
Dr. Tran Dinh Thanh, Head of the Oncology Department, Hoan My Saigon Hospital, said that the rate of early detection of lung cancer is still low but is improving thanks to high-risk groups having regular health check-ups and screening. Detecting and treating the disease in the early stages, when the tumor has not yet developed and metastasized, the cure rate is very high.
Doctors recommend early lung cancer screening in high-risk people, including people over 50 years old who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day for more than 20 years, people over 50 years old who have smoked for less than 15 years, people working in toxic environments, miners, people with a history of tuberculosis, obstructive pulmonary disease... This group is recommended to have a low-dose CT scan every 2 years. If there are suspicious lesions on the CT, depending on each case, the doctor will recommend and schedule a follow-up visit.
Normal people should have annual health check-ups, regular chest X-rays, and see the right specialist when there are unusual signs. Patients who comply with treatment, do not listen to folk remedies, miss the time for early treatment, leading to unfortunate consequences.
When you have symptoms of cough lasting more than a week, cough up phlegm, cough up blood..., you need to go to the hospital to screen for lung diseases. In the early stages, lung cancer often does not show any symptoms. When there are clinical manifestations, cough and chest pain, the disease has progressed.
"The symptoms are similar to respiratory diseases, very easy to confuse, many people think it is a cold or flu, by the time they go to the doctor, the disease is already in the late stages," said Dr. Thanh.
Lung cancer can be prevented by not smoking, avoiding secondhand smoke, exercising regularly, eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, and avoiding exposure to radiation and heavy metals. Workers in toxic environments such as chemicals or mines must take effective protective measures to avoid or minimize exposure to toxic carcinogens.
Le Phuong
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