ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the risk factors, epidemiology, semeiology, histopathological classification, diagnosis, staging, treatment, and prognosis of lung cancer. Radon exposure is the second cause of lung cancer after smoking and the first among nonsmokers. Although the proportion of lung cancers that these carcinogens cause is generally low, it is nevertheless important in populations of exposed workers. Lung cancer itself frequently metastasizes to the brain, bone, adrenal glands, contralateral lung, liver, kidney, and pericardium. In a patient with symptoms suggestive of lung cancer, it is important in order to eventually determine the appropriate treatment and prognosis to first prove the diagnosis of lung cancer on biopsies examined under a microscope by a pathologist and to determine the stage (extent) of the disease. The current criteria used to determine the tumor node and metastases (TNM) stage of lung cancer are presented.
