Rwanda has joined the rest of the world to mark the World Lung Cancer Day, which is observed every year on August 1. The day is meant to raise and create awareness about lung cancer with the main purpose of sensitising people about its causes. Lung cancer is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 cancer deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). While lung cancer and breast cancer are diagnosed at the same rate (11.6 per cent), lung cancer kills more people yearly than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined. Lung cancer mortality is projected to reach 2.45 million by 2030, a 39 percent increase in just over a decade. A report by Global Cancer Observatory (GCO) under the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) shows that in 2020 lung cancer was ranked the 7th in Rwanda with 346 new cases which marks 3.9 per cent of all cancer cases. The number of deaths was 313 which marks 5.2 per cent of all cancer death cases in Rwanda. The report was published in March this year. While most people understand that smoking is the single greatest risk factor for lung cancer at 80 per cent of all cases, other lesser known risk factors include the environment and genetics. According to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), environmental exposure to radon, asbestos, arsenic, beryllium and uranium has been linked to lung cancer. The risk of lung cancer also increases with a history of cancer in another part of the body, age, family history, radiation to the chest area and lung diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A new prospective study of more than 500 adults who were current smokers when diagnosed with lung cancer, published on July 27 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, an academic medical journal by the American College of Physicians, provides robust evidence indicating that quitting smoking after diagnosis of lung cancer is associated with significant improvement in overall survival and disease-free survival among these patients. The report is based on a 15-year collaborative study between the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Centre of Oncology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. This study recruited 517 patients with newly diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer who were current smokers, from the departments of thoracic surgery at two sites in Moscow, Russian Federation, and followed them up annually for an average of 7 years to record any changes in their smoking behaviour and disease status. “About 42 per cent of the patients (220 participants) in this study quit smoking during the follow-up period. Most of these patients quit smoking within the first 3 months after diagnosis and remained non-smokers until the end of the follow-up time,” Dr Mahdi Sheikh, a scientist in the Genomic Epidemiology Branch at IARC and the lead author of the study said in a press release published on IARC website. “Patients who quit smoking lived an average of 22 months longer overall and without recurrence of their disease than those who continued smoking.” Dr Sheikh added; “After accounting for differences in the timing of when patients quit, tumour characteristics, and the treatments received, we found that patients who quit smoking have a 33 per cent lower risk of dying from any cause and a 30 per cent lower risk of progression of the disease.” Some of the common symptoms of lung cancer according, to cancer.org, include a cough that does not go away or gets worse, coughing up blood, chest pain (that is often worse with deep breathing, coughing, or laughing), hoarseness, loss of appetite, unexplained weight loss, shortness of breath and infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia that don’t go away or keep coming back. If you have any of these symptoms, it is advisable that you see a doctor at the earliest. Some of the easiest ways to maintain good lung health is by staying away from the habit of smoking, avoiding second-hand smoke and ensuring regular exercise.
