Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about lung cancer.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero definals.com in the cardiothoracic surgery section

or in the same section of the zero definals surgery book.

So let's get straight into it.

Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK behind breast and prostate cancer.

Smoking is the biggest cause and around 80% of lung cancers are thought to be preventable.

Let's start by talking about the basic anatomy of the lungs.

Air enters the lungs through the trachea, which is the windpipe,

and this splits into the left main bronchus and the right main bronchus.

These bronchae then split into the low bar bronchi, the right main bronchus. These bronchi then split into the lobaugh bronchi,

the segmental bronchiol's and then the alveoli. Bronchi is plural for bronchus. The right lung has

three lobes and the left lung has two lobes. The way I remember this is that the heart is on the left

which leaves less room for the extra lobe. Both lungs have an oblique fissure separating the lungs.

The right lung also has a horizontal fissure and fluid may be seen in these fissures in acute

heart failure and pulmonary edema.

There's a membrane that surrounds the lungs called the plura.

There are two layers to this membrane with a small amount of fluid between the layers of less than 20 milliliters. These layers separate the lungs from the chest wall.

Lubrication between the two layers allows the lungs to expand and move without creating friction on the chest wall.

Between the two layers, there's a potential space called the plural cavity.

The two layers or the two plura are usually touching each other, which is why it's only a potential

space. There is negative pressure within the plural cavity, which pulls the two layers of the

...