OncQuest - Illuminating Cancer Diagnosis

Lung Cancer

The lungs are a pair of organs in the chest which are responsible for breathing. When you breathe in, air passes from your nose or mouth through the windpipe (trachea) into one of the two airways (bronchi) which enter the lungs. These airways divide to form smaller tubes at the end of which are millions of tiny sacs. It is here that oxygen is absorbed from the air and passes into the bloodstream to be circulated around the body. The lungs are surrounded by a protective lining that consists of two membranes called the pleura. Cancer which starts in the lung is known as primary lung cancer.

Cancer which spreads into the lung from elsewhere in the body is known as secondary lung cancer.The term `secondary cancer in the lung' describes the situation where cancer cells have spread to the lungs from a cancer that began elsewhere in the body. The original cancer is described as a primary cancer, and when it spreads this is referred to as secondaries or metastases. Any type of cancer can spread to the lung, but the most common types are large bowel (colon and rectum), breast, ovarian, testicular, stomach, gullet (oesophagus), kidney (renal) and a type of skin cancer called malignant melanoma.