November marks National Lung Cancer Awareness month, and new research on CT scanning technology is leading to advances in testing for current and former smokers that could help save lives through early detection.
The new screening (testing) tool is called a low-dose CT (LDCT) scan. According to the Lung Cancer Alliance, research shows that screening for lung cancer with LDCT is the only proven method for the early detection of lung cancer among high-risk individuals. High risk refers to current and former smokers with a 30-pack-a-year history of smoking.
Thanks to LDCT, physicians and their patients who used to smoke or may still be smoking now have a potentially life-saving early detection tool at their disposal.
Quitting smoking or not starting, of course, is the most important and effective way to avoid lung cancer. But recent research has found low-dose CT lung screening to be highly effective in catching early cancer among high-risk groups. For someone who has made the healthy choice to quit smoking, for example, but remains at an increased risk, advanced screening gives them the peace of mind that they don’t have lung cancer or can find it early enough to treat it more effectively.
In light of several recent clinical trials, Ward believes that lung cancer screening in the high-risk categories of current and former heavy smokers will become more accepted in the medical and insurance communities. In late 2013, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) – a government panel of health care experts that evaluates the latest scientific evidence on preventive services – issued a final recommendation in support of annual low-dose CT screening for lung cancer for those high-risk categories. The USPSTF based its recommendation on evidence from several studies, including a large, high-quality trial called the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST), involving more than 50,000 people.
NLST demonstrated that CT lung screening was far superior to traditional chest X-ray and provided a 20 percent decrease in lung cancer deaths among high-risk individuals. Ward said the trials and the USPSTF recommendation for CT lung screening in asymptomatic, high-risk current and former smokers is the type of evidence that gets the attention of insurance providers and physicians. In 2014, Northern Arizona Radiology became one of the first centers in the region to offer CT lung screening for cancer.
“It will take a while for insurance coverage, including Medicare and Medicaid, to catch up, but screening for lung cancer saves lives and these screening programs will grow over time.”
Specifically, the new USPSTF guidelines recommend annual low-dose CT lung screening for people 55 to 80 years old with a 30-pack-a-year or greater smoking history who currently smoke or who have quit smoking for 15 years or less.
Screening with LDCT can catch one of the costliest and most devastating results of smoking – lung cancer – and may encourage smokers to finally quit. For former smokers, CT lung screening pays even greater dividends by catching cancers that may still develop before they lead to late-stage, inoperable lung cancer, reinforcing their original healthy lifestyle decision to quit smoking. QCBN
By Stephen V. Ward, M.D.
Dr. Stephen Ward, born in Georgia, graduated from the medical college of Georgia in 1988. He completed his residency in Diagnostic Radiology at the Medical College of Georgia in 1993. He is certified with The American Board of Radiology. He has been a member of Northern Arizona Radiology since 1993.
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