Early Detection of Lung Cancer

Body Scan

Early detection of lung cancer with an annual CT, short for computed tomography, screening of people at high risk for lung cancer can be a winning factor in the battle against cancer. However, the method is still being studied. The scan takes diagnostic cross-sectional X-ray pictures of a "slice" of the body to provide detailed images. Annual screenings can find lung cancers in their earliest stage when up to 92 percent of cases can be cured, according to the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program, or IELCAP. Its research published in the October 2006 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine showed that more than 80 percent of patients who have lung cancer detected by CT screening can be cured. The cure rate rises to 92 percent if the cancer is found early and treatment is begun right away. Without this screening, more than 95 percent of lung cancer patients die from the disease within a few years or less of diagnosis.

Survival

The importance of early detection and screening can be found in the people who have reached their five-year survival rate, the time someone is considered to have beaten cancer. People with cancers diagnosed when the disease was still localized and had not spread had a nearly 50 percent survival rate. Patients whose cancer was found after it had spread saw a survival rate of only 2 percent, according to lungcancer.org, a program of CancerCare. Early detection can save lives, but it is not perfect and there is still no approved screening test for lung cancer, although studies have been under way. Early screening can help in many cases so it is a worthy endeavor, especially for people at high risk for lung cancer. They include those age 60 and over who smoke or have a history of smoking, people with previous lung tumors or patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

Nonsmokers

Although smokers have often been considered at high risk for lung cancer, it is estimated that as many as 25 percent of all lung cancers worldwide are not attributable to smoking, according to the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. This includes 15 percent of lung cancers in men and as much as 50 percent of lung cancers in women. Scientists are not certain why there is a difference in gender. People were shocked when nonsmoker Dana Reeve, the widow of actor Christopher Reeve, died of lung cancer at age 44. Nonsmokers with lung cancer have different tumor tissue structure and gene mutations. The NIH has launched a major study to research the causes of lung cancer in nonsmokers. Because there are rarely symptoms in the early stages of lung cancer, the ideal time to treat the disease, it is best to have regular doctor visits and screenings if you can. Symptoms that the lung cancer has reached its later stages include persistent cough, chest pain, voice change and recurrent pneumonia or bronchitis.