The American Cancer Society promotes local and nationwide activities, like the Great American Smoke out, to help educate people and to provide them with resources to help conquer their smoking habit. This year’s Great American Smoke out is scheduled for November 18.

Cancer is defined as a group of diseases that are characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. With lung cancer, because of the rapidly dividing abnormal cells the lung is no longer able to function properly and these cells eventually grow out of the lung and affect surrounding healthy tissue. When the cancer metastasizes to surrounding tissue, treatment options are more severely limited and quality of life is greatly affected. Occupational exposure to carcinogens like asbestos, tobacco smoke, radiation, viruses, and chemicals or a family history of lung cancer often lead to a diagnosis of lung cancer. Usually the cancer is found when the patient becomes symptomatic with a continuous, annoying cough which may produce blood-tinged sputum. Some patients experience weight loss, a lack of energy or shortness of breath. A chest X-ray is normally ordered to determine the cause for these complaints and a mass or abnormality may be found. This usually precipitates a diagnostic work-up to determine if the cause of the symptomology is benign or malignant.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center implemented a “Lung Mass” Clinic to perform work-up on patients with existing abnormal lung X-ray findings, and to diagnose and arrange treatment for these findings as quickly as possible. The clinic is comprised of an interdisciplinary team which includes services from Pulmonary, Cardiology, Cardio- Thoracic Surgery, Pathology, Medical and Radiological Oncology and referring Primary Care physicians.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death in men and women in the United States. Nearly twice as many women die of lung cancer than of breast cancer. Approximately 85% of all lung cases occur as a result of smoking or a history of smoking. A small number of cases are as a result of second-hand smoking exposure and a family history of lung cancer is also a consideration when diagnosing a lung abnormality. Treatment options are surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination of these treatments. With the onset of new targeted treatments for lung cancer patients, the anticipation is that outcomes will improve as will quality of life.

Prevention and early detection are the key components to reducing the number of deaths from lung cancer. Eisenhower’s Health and Wellness Center offers tobacco cessation classes. The classes are experiencing record enrollments with requests to add additional classes. Please consider enrolling in a class or talk to your provider about what resources are available to help you quit smoking. For more informaton on smoking cessation call the Health and Wellness Center at (706) 787-6756.

[Via-fortgordonsignal.com]

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In recognition of Lung Cancer Awareness Month, about 20 students attended the “Strike Out Lung Cancer” event Wednesday night in the Student Union.

Tracy Sestili, founder of the Beverly Fund Lung Cancer Foundation, said the purpose of the event was to draw attention to the often forgotten awareness month.

“When you look at October, you think it’s just breast cancer awareness month, but there are other diseases,” she said. “Every disease has a month, and there’s only 12 months in a year, so we all share.”

Chase Henderson, a senior business finance major, said he doesn’t know a lot about lung cancer, but said he has family members who’ve battled other types of cancer.

“I think it’s good to support anything that is for cancer research,” he said. “I haven’t dealt with that kind of stuff personally – I just think they are all really horrible.”

Sestili said November is not only a month to spread awareness for lung cancer, but it is also Pancreatic Cancer Awareness month, as well as Diabetes Awareness month.

“I think it’s important for youth to understand what all the risk and causes of lung cancer are,” she said. “It’s not just tobacco – tobacco is a bad habit.”

Sestili said the idea for the foundation came after discovering her mother had lung cancer. She said her family struggled to find a lot of readily available information about the disease.

“My mom (Beverly) died from lung cancer in 2006, five weeks before I got married,” she said. “I was doing all this research … I couldn’t find anything out there that was in easy to understand terms. Everything was in medical (jargon).”

Sestili said there are other causes of lung cancer besides smoking, such as exposure to radon, a radioactive gas, and asbestos, a naturally occurring silicate mineral.

Students who attended the event paid a $5 entry fee, which included a raffle ticket and a game of bowling. All of the proceeds were donated to The Beverly Fund Lung Cancer Foundation.

Some of the prizes included a mystery bag, Bud Light speaker box and gift baskets.

“I’d just be happy to win any of them,” said Kirt Dodge, a senior social science major. “Maybe the chocolate basket – get that for my mom.” [via- thespartandaily]

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