As cancer with a relatively high incidence, most lung cancers are often at an advanced stage when they appear. In our impression, smoking is one of the most important factors that induce lung cancer. Cigarettes contain a lot of toxic and harmful substances such as nicotine, tar, and soot, and these substances will enter the body with the smoker’s breathing, thereby affecting the health of the lungs and other organs.
In addition to cigarettes, some factors that we often overlook may also be factors of lung cancer.
1. Genes
Lung cancer is not a genetic disease, but it also has a certain genetic susceptibility.
Current studies have found that genes closely related to lung cancer mainly include: ras and myc gene families, cerbB-2, Bcl-2, c-fos and c-jun genes, etc., and related tumor suppressor genes include p53, Rb, CDKN2 , FHIT gene, etc.
In addition, there are abnormalities of hMSH2 and hPMS1, which are also associated with lung cancer.
2. Occupation
Some people need to be exposed to petroleum, asphalt, and other substances for a long time due to work reasons, and these substances will release a large number of carcinogens, and prolonged exposure will induce lung cancer and other diseases. Therefore, it can be found that most oil workers have a much higher risk of developing lung cancer than the general population.
At present, it has been confirmed that carcinogenic factors, mainly including asbestos, arsenic, chromium, nickel, beryllium, coal tar, mustard gas, trichloromethyl ether, heating products of tobacco and radon gas produced by the decay of radioactive substances such as uranium and radium, ionizing radiation and microwave radiation, etc.
3. Air pollution
A large amount of industrial waste gas is discharged from the factory in the process of work, and the toxic and harmful exhaust gas discharged from vehicles such as automobiles, greatly increases the degree of environmental pollution. According to experimental data, people who are exposed to PM2.5 for a long time will eventually develop lung cancer, especially lung adenocarcinoma at a considerable rate.
4. Secondhand smoke and oil fumes
At present, among the new patients with lung cancer, there is a phenomenon that the risk of lung cancer in non-smoking women also increases sharply. This is mainly caused by second-hand smoke. Wives in families where the husbands smoke and the wives do not smoke, are twice as likely to develop lung cancer than wives in non-smoking families.
In addition, indoor use of coal, exposure to soot, and its incomplete combustion, or the fumes released during cooking, are also high-risk factors for lung cancer.
