And if so, why don’t lung cancer patients simply get the lung removed?
Yes you can survive with one lung and lung cancer patients rountinely have one lung removed.
Yes, it is possible to live with just one lung (if the lung is in reasonably good condition.)
Some lung cancer patients are treated by surgical removal of one lung. (Remember Arthur Godfrey?) (and, IIRC, John Wayne?)
Most lung cancer patients have cancer in other parts of their body so that removal of a lung will not cure them and may only give them a few extra months of life. Since removal of a lung is a big and dangerous opeation and since quality of life may be significantly reduced by lung removal, lung removal is rarely chosen as a treatment for lung cancer.
Apart from the presence of metastatic disease elsewhere, another contraindication to removing a lung (pneumonectomy) or part of a lung (lobectomy) is when a tumor is so centrally located that it isn’t possible to do the surgery without compromising adjacent structures. Small cell carcinomas are generally treated with chemotherapy (often with initial good results but poor long-term life expectancy).
Note that many people with lung cancer also have smoking-induced lung disease. So, even if the cancer is confined to the one lung, if the other lung is severely diseased with emphysema or chronic bronchitis, the surgery can’t be done.
Doctors have a very sophisticated test to determine if a person can survive with one lung: the patient is asked to climb two flights of stairs. If they can do it, they’re probably OK for the surgery!
Yup.
A friend of mine, who has been big in the punk/alternative scene locally for 20 years, has had only one lung since he was about 12 or so.
A childhood friend and he were admiring the friend’s fathers AR-15, when, you guessed it–“I didn’t know it was loaded.” This would have been something like 30-35 years ago. Scott lost a lung (and some ribs, IIRC), but lives on in Shovlhed glory…
IIRC, Walt Disney was also member of the Mono-Lunger’s Club.
Well since it seems to be established that people can live with one lung, what else can’t they live without? I mean, at what point would you be unable to take out anything else in a person and have them function semi-normally (i.e. not permanantly hooked up to a heart-lung machine or something)
People can live with one lung, one kidney, barely anything for a stomach, a few feet less of intestine, no appendix, no tonsils, half a brain. There has to be more.
um, let me think
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spleen – If I recall correctly it does have some immune system fuction, but isint required
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gallbladder
hell, damn near anything beyond your heart could be removed I guess… (WAG there)
So long as you take “replacement therapy”, you won’t die without:
[ul]
[li]brain (replacement therapy = mechanical ventilation)[/li][li]thyroid gland (replacement therapy = thyroxine)[/li][li]adrenal glands (replacement therapy = cortisol)[/li][li]pituitary gland (replacement therapy = cortisol, thyroxine, estrogen/testosterone*, vasopressin*)[/li][li]pineal gland (apparently nothing to replace, after puberty ayway)[/li][li]kidneys (replacement therapy = dialysis)[/li][li]pancreas (replacement therapy = insulin and digestive enzymes)[/li][li]stomach (no replacement needed)[/li][li]intestines (replacement therapy = IV feeding a.k.a TPN)[/li][li]ovaries (replacement therapy = estrogen*)[/li][li]testes (replacement therapy = testosterone*)[/li][li]prostate (no replacement needed)[/li][li]uterus (no replacement needed)[/li][li]gall bladder (no replacement needed)[/li][li]urinary bladder (no replacement needed)[/li][li]spleen (no replacement needed)[/ul][/li]
In other words, the only truly essential and (currently) irreplaceable organs are your liver, heart, and lungs.**
[sub]*not needed for life
**there are “artificial hearts” and even less well-developed “artificial lungs”. These are temporizing measures at best. They cannot be considered a long-term replacement.[/sub]
Dammit…my friend and I were just discussing this earlier, and I forgot the guy’s name. There was a professional tubist (who has since died) who had to have a lung removed. He still played for several years before his death. If anyone can remember who that was or where it was he played, I’d like to know.
-Neil
My mom has only one lung. She says the operation felt like drowning. Have a nice day!!
FROM here.
[QUOTE]
Arnold Jacobs is a legend. Known as “the Man With One Lung”, Arnold was Tuba player with the Chicago Symphony, and a worldwide respected breathing expert. He lectured at medical conferences, and taught anyone who breathes for a living. He also had the equivalent of one lung- a half of each was removed when he was in his forties. Besides being an awesome musician, he was a gifted teacher and a wonderful person. You can read about him in “Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind” Brain Frederiksen, edited by John Taylor, published by WindSong Press Ltd, second printing 1996, ISBN 0-9652489-0-9.
[QUOTE]