Lung Cancer and Promising Breakthroughs

Lung cancer is one of the great scourges of American society, continuing to kill and disable thousands of Americans every year. Cigarettes are still among the most common causes, though other environmental factors including workplace exposure to carcinogens are gaining. Hundreds of thousands of Americans still work jobs where their employer requires them to breathe in dangerous chemicals on a daily basis.

Thankfully, major breakthroughs are being made, both in the diagnosis and the treatment of this devastating disease. Recent breakthroughs include:

• A new low dose CT scan that can catch lung cancer earlier and with fewer side effects than current scanning procedures
• New surgeries that are showing promise as long-term treatments for the disease
• A blood test that might detect lung cancer without needing to risk radiation exposure or biopsy
• New targeted radiation treatments that have fewer systemic effects, and that can also help remove the scar tissue lung cancer leaves behind when it is treated

Society is often quick to blame people who get lung cancer, assuming they have done something to bring this disease on themselves. All too often this just isn’t the case, as the disease was caused by circumstances outside a person’s control. Businesses continue to put the health of their workers at risk all the time.

If you or someone you love has developed lung cancer due to exposure to dangerous chemicals or other carcinogens, please contact an attorney. The tobacco companies denied for years that cigarettes caused cancer, until it was finally proven in a court of law and they were forced to pay for the thousands of deaths they caused. Only when other companies are held to similar account can we begin to decrease the number of people who suffer from this disease.