What are the symptoms, risk factors... Lung cancer is an extremely serious disease that, if not detected in time, has a fatal outcome. However, modern medicine has advanced a lot and can successfully cure this disease when it is detected at an early stage. Oncology specialist Prof. . Ph.D. Gordan Srkalović has been working at the Herbert-Herman Cancer Center of the Edward E. Sparrow Hospital System in the USA for 15 years, where he holds the position of director of clinical research. He is also an associate professor of internal medicine at Michigan State University. He was born in Sarajevo in 1956, and in 1981 he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sarajevo. He also obtained his doctorate at the same faculty, dealing with the topics of vascular reactivity in hemorrhagic shock and the role of opioid receptors in the control of blood vessels during experimental shock. He has lived in the USA since 1992, and in the state of Ohio, he specialized in internal medicine with a subspecialization in malignant and blood diseases, with special expertise in multiple myeloma and amyloidosis. Srkalović gave a lecture yesterday in the amphitheater of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of BiH in Sarajevo on the topic "Lung cancer: A disease that can be prevented." In an interview with Radiosarajevo.ba, Gordan Srkalović talks about, among other things, the main causes of lung cancer, symptoms, especially sensitive categories, treatment of the disease, and more. Radiosarajevo.ba: How serious is lung cancer, and besides smoking, do air pollution, dust, and work in asbestos mines cause lung cancer? About 90 percent of lung cancer cases are directly caused by cigarette smoking. In Western countries, such as the USA, some laws and actions reduce smoking; there is a direct correlation between cigarette smoking and cancer. With the reduction of smoking, lung cancer is reduced, so it is the only effective way to prevent it. Lung cancer can be compared to other cancers, and it is still curable if found in the early stages. When it spreads, then it is an incurable disease, and people die directly from it. Asbestos mines are more associated with a cancer called mesothelioma, which is different from classic lung cancer, so it's a different type of impact. There are environmental factors that can contribute to lung cancer. The main cause of lung cancer is cigarette smoking. There must be action by the whole society and politicians who will pass a law and thus reduce cigarette smoking. Also, there must be action by patients, their families, and non-governmental organizations so that everyone understands that this is a way to prevent people from dying and thus to improve society. The loss of life is immeasurable, so we must work to reduce smoking to reduce dying from lung cancer. Radiosarajevo.ba: Apart from constant coughing, what are the most common symptoms of this disease? Constant cough and infections like pneumonia won't go away even with antibiotics. Also, coughing up blood doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's always a reason for immediate observation and an endoscopy to see if lung cancer is present. In the USA, there is now a law, that is, it is covered by insurance companies, to screen people who have smoked for more than 20 years and who are older than 50 years, intending to find cancer and cure it possibly. Radiosarajevo.ba: Are people in particular danger who started smoking in childhood, for example, at the age of 14 or 15? It is a special danger. Children whose mothers smoked are also at particular risk. Their chance of getting lung cancer increases by 50 percent. Although they have never smoked, their mothers smoked cigarettes when they were children, the chances of developing lung cancer are up to 50 percent higher. Radiosarajevo.ba: How advanced has modern pulmonology, that is, medicine, been in curing this disease? Medicine has advanced a lot. We are now identifying genetic malformations that contribute to lung cancer at the molecular and genetic level. With this, we discovered some malformations and some mutations that we can treat directly with drugs. Again, these gene mutations are much more common in non-smokers than in smokers. It is easier to treat and possibly cure lung cancer in non-smokers than in smokers. (https://www.radiosarajevo.ba/)
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