Screening EVERY former and current smoker over 50 for lung cancer could quadruple survival rates

Screening all former and current smokers over 50 for lung cancer could quadruple survival rates, according to a study.

Researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital found that patients who had annual CT scans had an 80 percent 20-year survival rate.

By way of comparison, most lung cancer patients die within a year of diagnosis and barely a fifth survive five years.

This is because symptoms usually don’t appear until the lung cancer has reached a late stage, meaning that screening earlier in life is the right way to stop the disease before it progresses.

The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual low-dose CT lung cancer screening in adults 50 to 80 years of age with a 20 pack-year history of smoking.

These are people who have smoked at least one pack a day for 20 years and who currently smoke or have quit within the last 15 years.

A targeted lung cancer screening program is planned in the UK, inviting all former and current smokers aged 55 to 74 for screening.

Patients at risk are offered CT scans of their lungs.

Smoking is known to make you more susceptible to lung cancer, but symptoms develop late in the disease, making early screening essential to increase survival rates.

The study tracked the 20-year survival rate of 1,285 patients screened under the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (ELCAP) who were later diagnosed and treated with early-stage lung cancer.

The overall survival rate of the participants was 80 percent. Meanwhile, the survival rate for patients with nonsolid cancerous lung nodules and those with nodules that had a partially solid consistency was 100 percent.

The average 5-year survival rate for all lung cancer patients is 19 percent, mainly due to the fact that only 16 percent of lung cancers are detected early enough.

dr Claudia Henschke, lead author of the study and director of ELCAP at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, said: “What we present here is the 20-year follow-up of participants in our screening program who were diagnosed lung cancer and subsequently treated.

“The most important finding is that even after such a long time [of] an interval of time, they don’t die from their lung cancer. And even if new lung cancers were found over time, they would be fine as long as they continue with annual screening.’

She added: “While screening does not prevent cancer from occurring, it is an important tool for detecting lung cancer in its early stages, when it can be surgically removed. Ultimately, anyone interested in screening needs to know that lung cancer can be cured if caught early.”

The study will be presented at the Radiological Society of North America.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk