Description

The lung mass evaluation MedicalTemplate is suitable for any health care provider that evaluates patients with lung masses and potential lung cancer.

The discovery of a lung mass provokes great fear, because this discovery may be the first sign of lung cancer or other cancer. Because of the risk of cancer, a thorough and timely evaluation of a lung mass is imperative.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states, ”More people die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer. This is true for both men and women. In 2003 (the most recent year for which statistics are currently available), lung cancer accounted for more deaths than breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer combined.”

In 2003 nearly 200,000 people were diagnosed with lung cancer. In that same year, 160,000 died from lung cancer. The treatment for lung cancer is not very effective, unless detected and treated in the earliest, often asymptomatic, stages.

Not all lung masses are due to cancer. Lung masses can develop as a result of infection, primarily tuberculous and fungal infections. Other disease processes associated with lung masses include rheumatoid arthritis, sarcoidosis, silicosis, and arteriovenous malformations.

Questions relating to smoking history, drug abuse, and alcohol abuse are standard in MedicalTemplates. These questions have increased importance in the evaluation of patients with lung masses. Patients who smoke are at 10-20 times more likely to develop lung cancer, and many other cancers (i.e., gastric, pancreatic, cervical, larynx, esophagus and colon cancer) are also related to smoking.