What cells in the lungs most often become cancerous?
Lung cancer accounts for fully one-third of all cancer deaths in the United States. Its incidence is strongly associated with cigarette smoking (over 90% of lung cancer patients were smokers). Lung cancer has a notoriously low cure rate – most people with lung cancer die within 1 year of diagnosis – the overall 5-year survival rate is about 7 percent. Lung cancer metastasizes rapidly and widely, and most cases are not diagnosed until they are well advanced. Ordinarily, nasal hairs, sticky mucus, and the action of cilia do a find job of protecting the lungs from irritants, but in smokers, these cleansing structures are overwhelmed and eventually stop functioning. Continuous irritation prompts the production of more mucus, but smoking paralyzes the cilia that clear this mucus and depresses the activity of lung macrophages. However, it is the irritant effects of the “cocktail” of free radicals and other carcinogens in tobacco smoke that eventually translate into lung cancer. These carcino
