LUNG CANCER SCREENING TEST
If you smoke, or are a former smoker, there is an extremely important new study out which shows how you can protect yourself from developing advanced lung cancer.
More Americans die each year from lung cancer, than from breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers combined. Screening for lung cancer is a problem that physicians have been grappling with for many years. For breast cancer, we have mammography, and now breast CAT scans and MRIs to screen for breast cancer. For colon cancer, we have flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy.
This latest research is an important study because it shows that a routine screening CAT scan can be used to screen for hidden lung cancer, and can prevent deaths in someone with a smoking history.
“I don’t know how old I was when I started smoking, probably about 13 or 14.” James Curley is 70 now, and two packs a day for many years adds up to a huge lung cancer risk. Today, he’s getting himself screened for lung cancer. James is getting a CAT scan of his chest to see if there’s a hidden lung cancer waiting to spread.
Until now there has been no screening test for lung cancer proven to improve survival. However, new data presented at this week’s annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America adds more fuel to the fire, stating that CAT scans can be used to screen for lung caner. Some physicians even recommend that CAT scans should be standard for screening smokers or former smokers for lung cancer.
Dr. Claudia Henschke is the Cornell Medical Center researcher who says that paying $300 to get a CAT scan to screen for lung cancer, is well worth the cost. “When you buy insurance for a house you’re insuring against a slight risk that something will happen and you pay a certain amount. This is how you can personalize the medical risk,” says Dr. Henschke.
According to the research, annual CAT scans can identify a high percentage of early stage lung cancer. And that can lead to a 75% chance of curing lung cancer. Without the CAT scan the smoker’s chance of cure, if diagnosed with lung cancer, is less than 10%. The reason: screening identifies lung cancers at an earlier stage when the lung cancer is smaller, increasing the likelihood that it can be cut out before it spreads.
“Even if you’re under fifty you have a one per cent chance of having lung cancer. What does that mean? One in a hundred or ten per thousand that I screened will be found with a lung cancer,” states Dr. Henschke.
The question is, when should people start screening for lung cancer? At age 50? And how frequently should a person get a CAT scan? Every year? Every two years? “We haven’t looked at all the answers to those questions, which are very important questions,” admits Dr. Henschke.
While the details need to be ironed out, it’s becoming clear, that screening for lung cancer with CAT scans will save the lives of those with a history of smoking.
Some experts are concerned that screening for lung cancer will lead to over diagnosis, or the detection of cancers that would not have caused symptoms prior to patients dying of other causes.
False positives also are common with first time CAT scans because the test can mistake scar tissues from an old infection, or a benign lump, for cancer. These so called false positives can lead to worry and a need for procedures such as a needle biopsy to further screen for lung cancer.