During the winters some of the chronic and respiratory diseases alarm us. Most of them are known as Asthma, Chest infection, Pneumonia etc. To talk on different diseases of lungs there causes, symptoms and treatment Health Live interviewed Dr.Pramoj Jindal, Senior consultant and Lung cancer specialist at Sir Gangaram Hospital New Delhi, here are some excerpts …
- Sir what are common lungs problem seen in India?
The main problems are difficulty in breathing, cough, allergic symptoms . Apart the Asthma and COPD are seen commonly in our country.
- Who are the specialists for treating these diseases?
Chest Physician, General Physician, Lung Surgeons and ICU care specialists.
- Sir, what is lung cancer and how many types of lung cancer are there, please could you describe them?
It is difficult to find out Lung cancer without diagnosis. Cancer is a disease which grow in human body out of control and when it happens in lungs it is said to be Lung Cancer. It begins in the lungs and may spread to lymph nodes or other organs in the body, such as the brain also.
There are three major stages of lung cancer namely.
Early Lung Cancer ii )Locally advanced lung cancer iii) Metastatic lung cancer
In which Early lung cancer constitute only 10 percent of patients and 85 percent patients are from other two stages of cancer. In India 85 percent of lung patients are of advance stage.
Please could you elaborate about the causes and symptoms of Lung cancer.
Causes: The common causes of lung cancer are, smoking, pollution, occupation related to asbestos , genetics-family related. Mainly smoking is the cause of lung cancer , in India around 95 per cent of lung cancers contributed through smoking. I must say if person has smoked continuously for 15 years has chances of lung cancer more in such cases they are at high risk. Smoking causes significant changes in your lungs and airways. It inflames and irritates the lungs, even few cigarettes cause irritation and coughing. Smoking decreases the number of air spaces resulting less oxygen reached to parts of body.
Another causes attributed are asbestos ,the workplace is a common source of exposure to asbestos fibers, as asbestos was widely used in the past for both thermal and acoustic insulation materials. Air pollution, from vehicles, industry, and power plants, can raise the likelihood of developing lung cancer. Up to 1% of lung cancer deaths are attributable to breathing polluted air.
Symptoms:
The most of the symptoms of lung cancer are similar to symptoms of other lung diseases. Keep noticing to learn what these symptoms are. If you experience any of them, you should see your doctor for a medical evaluation. Cough, breathing problem Irritation, Haematosis with spit, constant chest pain, any cough more than 15 days etc are main symptoms.
- What type of diagnosis and treatment patient should go for?
Diagnosis: The early diagnosis is always helpful and save the patients to reach later stage of cancer.
i)CT scan and PET CT Scan: Positron emission tomography (PET) uses small amounts of radioactive materials called radiotracers or radiopharmaceuticals, a special camera and a computer to evaluate organ and tissue functions. In test easily identifying changes at the cellular level, it detects early before other imaging tests can.
ii)Biopsy: A biopsy is the only sure way to diagnosis most cancers. The removal of tissue or cells for analysis is called a biopsy.
Treatment:
Chemotherapy– When tumor is small it can be easily removed through chemotherapy otherwise for later stages we suggest for surgeries.
Surgeries-Nowadays,it is very easy to operate lung cancer through new technique of surgeries. VATS (Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery) Uni-portal VATS and Robotic are some advanced surgeries performed for treating lung cancers.
In the year 2010 first VATS was performed by Sir GangaramHospital by me and the team.
In the year 2015 we used more advanced lung surgery called Uniportal VATS uniportal (single port) VATS lobectomy, was developed that has subsequently been more rapidly adopted than its earlier procedure.
Among all these techniques, Uniportal VATS has been gaining more and more success in these years, promising superior results compared to other ones. This technique provides the same anterior approach as for open surgery with a direct visualization of target tissue, a good lung mobilization and only one 3–4 cm incision is necessary. Uniportal VATS gives the possibility of introducing several instruments through the same small incision and handling them comfortably.
Uniportal VATS is a safe and effective strategy for the surgical management of malignant lung disease. In patients undergoing anatomic lobectomy, there was an association with significantly less post-operative narcotic usage in patients undergoing uniportal VATS when compared to traditional VATS. This emerging technology may benefit patients by allowing less narcotic usage during their post-operative hospitalization. It takes only 1-2 hours for the surgery compare to 5-6 hours in traditional VATS. The other advantage is that it takes less time to heal and patient can recover soon.
I suggest and advise patients of lung cancers do not scared from any surgery as these surgeries are performed in very safe and precautious way with skilled surgeons. Till now we have performed 50 surgeries in Sir Gangaram Hospital and all are successful.
