About 90% of lung cancer in men is as a result of smoking; this implies that if men could stop smoking, then the risk of lung cancer can be effectively reduced and prevented. Lung cancer in men differs from lung cancer in women, symptoms like heart attacks which is most common in men can hardly be experienced by a woman. Lung cancer can easily be detected in men than in women because of certain typical symptoms common in men. The type of lung cancer that is most common in men is the squamous carcinoma non-small cell lung cancer. This type of lung cancer tends to grow near major airways and the symptoms often show up early. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. In spite of the death rate of lung cancer in men, it is also a fact that in the past few years, the death rates of lung cancer in men have drastically dropped signifying tremendous improvements in the control of the disease.
Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer; besides smoking which is a common cause in both men and women, there are causes which are specifically related to men such as occupational causative factors. Occupation such as metal work, painting, cleaning, plumbing, pipe fitting, welding, and general construction work exposes men to the development of lung cancer. About 29% of lung cancer cases are caused by these occupations.
Moreover, there is a particular symptom called paraneoplastic syndrome, this symptom is more common in men with lung cancer disease. The symptoms sometimes include weakness in the upper limbs, and muscles, other lung cancer symptoms common to men are persistent cough, wheezing, coughing out blood, and lung disease due to infections in the lungs. Infections like pneumonia are most common, it often results to the development of lung cancer. In spite of all the risks related to the development of lung cancer in men, there are obvious ways in which the risks can be reduced. The most important way is to quit smoking since smoking ranks the highest among the causative factors of lung cancer. Other ways to reduce the risk of lung cancer includes testing for the presence of radon gas, being conscious of occupational causes, avoiding cigarette or tobacco substance smoke, and eating healthy diet.