Re: Lung cancer mortality..../primary vs. secondary tumors

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@HOTMAIL.COM>]

>No, the first cancer is called the primary cancer, the metastases is called 

>a secondary cancer. When a SEER (http://seer.cancer.gov/) state collects 

>data, they try to discern which is the primary. It often takes CT or 

>autopsies etc to figure it out. Normally with lung cancer, it is recognized 

>first because of a cough, pneumonia etc. and then the secondary cancers 

>appear at a later stage. But, your right, the patient often dies from other 

>causes than lung cancer.

---

Right after George Harrison died the Swedish no. one sensational newspaper 

("Aftonbladet") wrote in one larger article that he had died from brain 

cancer (bold introduction text, and no direct comment was made to his 

smoking BTW) - other sources indicated that the primary was in the upper 

bronchial region (or pharynx). A pity I think that the newspaper missed this 

opportunity to educate the public - I wrote to Aftonbladet and pointed this 

out in 2-3 sentences but they were not interested. Lung cancer deaths still 

increases in Sweden - for women it has doubled in 20 years - for men it is 

decreasing somewhat.



My personal reflection only.



Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers@hotmail.com









_________________________________________________________________

Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com



************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/