why is lung disease so hard to cure

[nec209]

Lung cancer or lung disease seems to be hardest to cure or treat.

 

In chronic bronchitis, the airways that carry air to the lungs (bronchial tubes) get inflamed and make a lot of mucus. This can narrow or block the airways, making it hard for you to breathe.

 

Emphysema. In a healthy person, the tiny air sacs in the lungs are like balloons. As you breathe in and out, they get bigger and smaller to move air through your lungs. But with emphysema, these air sacs are damaged and lose their stretch. Less air gets in and out of the lungs, which makes you feel short of breath.

 

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in COPD is a lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. It is caused by damage to the lungs over many years.

 

main symptoms are: A long-lasting (chronic) cough. Mucus that comes up when you cough, Shortness of breath that gets worse when you exercise.

 

characterized by chronically poor airflow. It typically worsens over time. The main symptoms include shortness of breath, cough, and sputum production.

 

causes an inflammatory response in the lungs resulting in narrowing of the small airways and breakdown of lung tissue.

 

There is no cure for chronic bronchitis,Emphysema or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The only treatment is to help with symptoms.

 

People die with two to three years after being diagnosed by the doctor.

 

 

Why is chronic bronchitis,Emphysema or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease so hard to cure?

 

 

There are many different lung cancers but the overall lung cancer survival rate of 5 years is only 16% , I know it is really low and does not give much of a fighting chance.

 

Lung cancer or lung disease seems to be hardest to cure or treat even over heart problems.

 

There is no cure for chronic bronchitis,Emphysema or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. People die with two to three years after being diagnosed by the doctor.

Edited February 27, 2015 by nec209

[sciencehealth]

Severe, live threatening bacterial pneumonia can be easily and completely treated by antibiotics in few days.

 

Spontaneous or traumatic pneumothorax are relatively easy to treat.

 

Lung cancer is often hard to treat because the lung tissue does not have pain receptor, so it can grow to a considerable size before it starts to cause pain (when it invades a blood vessel for an example).

[between3and26characterslon]

Keep an eye out or google MK-3475 which is a drug currently being trialed by Merck. It works by chemically tagging cancer cells which causes the body's immune system to identify it as foreign and therefore attack the cell. It has, according to some published results, shown remarkable efficacy in treating multiple cancers including lung cancer even after the cancer has metastasized.

 

Doesn't answer your question but I thought it might interest you.

[Enteroctopus]

This is somewhat speculative, but I suspect this is partly related to the types of tissue found in the lungs and their ability to regenerate, or lack thereof. Connective tissues are extremely resilient, withstanding acute insults far exceeding those of other tissues, but once damaged they don't tend to return to their normal level of function. One must simply manage, or treat the condition as-is.

 

Emphysema is a lack of elasticity, that being a function of healthy connective tissue. That tissue develops in utero, and is largely done forming and growing in adults.

 

The tenacity and malignancy of cancers is a function of their origin (cell type), blood supply, endocrine factors, and location. With lung cancers I'd imagine it is the cell type - probably sarcoma in a lot of cases - combined with the fact that as mentioned earlier you may enjoy many years of presumably healthy life with a steadily growing cancer. Once symptomatic it has often reached a grim stage.

[jimmydasaint]

This is one scenario/hypothesis for the short-lived survival period which adds to the answers above. In short, there is a component of self-attack by white blood cells cells which appears to exacerbate symptoms of inflammation (irritation and swelling of tissues) which surface after a relatively long "incubation" period:

A scenario which is under experimental exploration exposes an attractive model for initiation of inflammation, comprising oxidative DNA damage of LEBCs and host immune response. According to that, noxious particles induce oxidative DNA damage of the lung epithelial barrier cells (LEBCs), and the acquired mutations are expressed at the microsatellite DNA level of LEBCs. The altered LEBCs are recognized by dendritic cells (DCs) as "nonself" DCs travel with the new information to the lymph nodes, presenting it to the naive T lymphocytes, and after that a predominant CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocyte proliferation occurs. The CD8+ T lymphocytes release perforin and granzymes and attract the altered LEBCs, activating cell death cascades [7].

 

From

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/pm/2012/542769/

Edited May 21, 2015 by jimmydasaint

[MigL]

Any inflammation of the lining of the lungs, whether due to corrosive agents ( acid reflux, acidic vapours, etc. ) or irritants ( asbestos, coal dust, silicon, etc. ), will lead to the formation of scar tissue, or a 'thickening' of the lining.

This effect decreases the lung's ability to pass O2 and CO2 in and out, leading to fluid build-up in the lungs ( pneumonia ).

Once the symptoms become noticeable it is usually too late, as too much scar tissue has already formed, and the only short term remedy is massive amounts of steroids ( to inhibit scar tissue formation ).

A ventilator can usually force O2 into the lungs, through the thickened membranes and into the blood, but there is no way to force the cO2 out through the thickened membranes, and death occurs through CO2 poisoning.

 

Sometimes this is mis-diagnosed as heart failure ( due to a heart attack ) and the wrong treatment prescribed at a time when the steroid therapy may have still bought some time.

 

My late father died of this.

[StringJunky]

Any inflammation of the lining of the lungs, whether due to corrosive agents ( acid reflux, acidic vapours, etc. ) or irritants ( asbestos, coal dust, silicon, etc. ), will lead to the formation of scar tissue, or a 'thickening' of the lining.

This effect decreases the lung's ability to pass O2 and CO2 in and out, leading to fluid build-up in the lungs ( pneumonia ).

Once the symptoms become noticeable it is usually too late, as too much scar tissue has already formed, and the only short term remedy is massive amounts of steroids ( to inhibit scar tissue formation ).

A ventilator can usually force O2 into the lungs, through the thickened membranes and into the blood, but there is no way to force the cO2 out through the thickened membranes, and death occurs through CO2 poisoning.

 

Sometimes this is mis-diagnosed as heart failure ( due to a heart attack ) and the wrong treatment prescribed at a time when the steroid therapy may have still bought some time.

 

My late father died of this.

Also, I presume, the thickening of the lining will reduce the available freespace for gas exchange; loss of internal volume.

Edited May 21, 2015 by StringJunky