General concept on lung cancer

  Like all cancers, cancer of the lung, results from an abnormality in the growth of the body’s basic unit of life, the cell. Normally, cells divide to produce new cells only when new cells are needed. Disruption of this system of checks and balances on cell growth results in an uncontrolled division and proliferation of cells that eventually forms a mass known as a tumor.

Tumors can be benign or malignant. “Cancer,” usually refers to those tumors that are malignant. Benign tumors usually can be removed and do not spread to other parts of the body. Malignant tumors, on the other hand, grow aggressively and invade other tissues of the body, allowing entry of tumor cells into the bloodstream or lymphatic system and then to other sites in the body. 



This process of spread is termed metastasis; the areas of tumor growth at these distant sites are called metastasize very early after it forms, it is a very- threatening cancer and one of the most difficult cancers to treat. While lung cancer can spread to any organ in the body, certain organs- particularly the adrenal glands, liver, brain, and bone- are the most common sites for lung cancer metastasess.