There are two different types of lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. It all depends on the size of what the cells look like under the microscope. These two types of lung cancer can develop differently, causing them to be treated differently. Non-small cell lung cancer is the more common of the two and usually grows quite slowly. There are three main types of non-small cell lung cancer: squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. Small cell cancer is the least common and it grows quite quickly and can easily spread to other organs in the body (Cavendish, p.946). Usually, cells grow and divide at a specific rate that allows the body to function healthily, but sometimes cells begin to divide at an uncontrollable rate. When the cells grow too much, they form a tumor. The cells in this tumor are cancer cells and when the cancer cells are in the lungs, they eat away the lungs which leads to someone's death. Some people who are at risk of developing cancer are those who smoke cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, as well as people who are around radon, asbestos, and pollution. In most people with cancer, cancer cells are not detected until later stages. Only 15% of people with cancer are diagnosed at an early stage. When a person is diagnosed with cancer, they have at most five years to live. It is important whether the cancer cells have reached the local lymph nodes or elsewhere. Most people find out they have cancer by chance. They will go for an x-ray or scan for something else and find out they have cancer (http://my.webmd.com). There are many different symptoms of lung cancer. Most of them do something with breathing or with their mouth. Some of the symptoms are: cough that does not go away, chest pain sometimes made worse by deep breathing, hoarse voice, weight loss or loss of appetite, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, fever for no known reason, recurrent infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. and wheezing (http://my.webmd.com). There are many ways to diagnose lung cancer. A scan (computed tomography) will show the exact size, shape and position of the tumor. An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) will help determine where the cancer will spread. A PET (positron emission tomography) scanner traces the middle of a sheet of paper from the outside and focuses on the cancer. The other type is brachytherapy, in which a small pellet of radioactive material is placed directly into the cancer or a nearby airway. I think lung cancer is very serious. I thought this report would be very helpful to me as many people will know someone with lung cancer and if someone close to me has lung cancer then I will know how they are doing tell him. I may even get lung cancer one day and if I do, then I will know what my options are for life and what to do to help myself. I learned a lot while writing this report and I think lung cancer and all other types of cancer are a big problem and everyone should learn everything they can about them.BibliographyEncyclopedia of Family Health, volume 8, Marshall Cavendish, 1998, pp. 974 – 978Johnston, Lorraine, Lung cancer: making sense of the diagnosis, 16,2001