Lung cancer: this is (and this is how it is cured) the disease Mila Ximénez faces

After the news that the actress Isabel Torres suffered from lung cancer in March, it is now Mila Ximénez, the presenter of TV 5, who has announced that she has detected a "localized tumor with ramifications" in her lungs. Although we often think that breast cancer is the main threat to women's health, oncologists from the Spanish Lung Cancer Group warn that lung cancer figures increase among the female population year by year and these tumors already occupy third place in the ranking of female cancer. The reason? Than Spanish women already represent 64% of smokers in our country, and we must not forget that the 80% of lung cancer cases have their origin in tobacco. But what exactly is this disease? Do you have treatment?

Not all types of lung cancer are created equal

When a tumor is detected in one of the two lungs, it is called lung cancer. However, There are two major groups of lung cancer: small cell and non-small cell.

The first represents the 20% of lung tumors. The second is the most common and is further subdivided into three other groups: squamous carcinoma (the most common of all and characterized by slow growth); adenocarcinoma (which it is the most frequent in women) and large cell carcinoma.

No matter what type of tumor there is in the lung, the symptoms are usually the same. During the early stages of the disease there is hardly any discomfort, but as the disease progresses it is common to suffer persistent cough, chest pain, feeling of shortness of breath, frequent lung infections…

But there are also other symptoms that seem unrelated to our lungs but they can help us to be alert and go to the doctor as they are persistent hoarseness, feeling that food is stuck in the chest, weight loss, bone pain, fatigue and loss of appetite.

How Lung Cancer Is Treated (And Cured)

Depending on the if the disease is detected sooner or later and other factors (such as the type of tumor, the health conditions in which the patient is at the time of diagnosis and the extent of the tumor) one treatment or another is used.

In general lines we could say that the cases of lung cancer detected early, when the disease is just beginning, surgery is always the best option: by means of a surgical intervention, the tumor is removed and the entire area is sanitized. Unfortunately, only 25-30% of cases are detected in this phase, especially in women. The figures show that they access the diagnosis of lung cancer later than men because it is one of the diseases that are still considered "male".

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In another 20-30% (and this seems to be the case of Mila Ximénez when analyzing her statements), cancer is diagnosed when it has a regional extension and therefore a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy is required to remove it.

In the rest of the cases the tumor is detected in advanced stages and then chemotherapy is used to stop the disease. Although in recent years they are being used new immunotherapy therapies (a therapy that consists of being the patient's own defenses that detect and eliminate the tumor) that improves the result of chemotherapy.