Cancer and Healthy

There is a fait accompli on lung cancer - the earlier the disease is detected, the greater the chance of a cure for it. This is the reason why lung cancer screening is of paramount importance.

The doctors point out that, although the overall survival rate for lung cancer in the five years is only 15%, the survival rate for those cancer was discovered and surgically treated could be as high as 80%. For this reason, some doctors recommend periodic screening for lung cancer with chest x-rays.

Once the disease has progressed as it will rapidly to other parts of the lungs and critical organs all over the body. At that stage, surgery is no longer a viable treatment.

Unfortunately, the early stages of lung cancer does not give rise to alarming symptoms. Common symptoms include a persistent cough, a tendency to respiratory diseases, etc. These symptoms are not linked to lung cancer alone. This is the reason why lung cancer is rarely diagnosed until it's too late.

In this context, regular screening for lung cancer - at least for those most at risk, such as smoking - seems a sensible choice. However, unlike the case of many other diseases (including other forms of cancer), there is no truly effective screening test for lung cancer.

In most cases of lung cancer is detected when doing tests such as chest x-rays for other health problems. Because of the risks, most doctors do not recommend chest x-ray screening as a routine procedure. Many believed (until recently) that chest x-rays can be freely misleading when it comes to detecting cancer.

This conclusion was based on studies carried out during the 1970s. These studies showed that chest X-ray were not effective in detecting dangerous, rapidly spreading tumors in the earliest stages. Furthermore, those who have been discovered with a relatively slow-growing tumors had undergone surgery and other treatments that are not really necessary.

However, many things have changed since the time of these studies were carried out. Today, x-rays are much more sensitive than they were then. There is also a battery of sophisticated tests available that can be used in the follow-up of all the problems found with the x-ray.

A new study conducted by the National Cancer Institute to a group of 150,000 healthy adults. This study, sponsored by the U.S. government, distinguishes these 150,000 people into two equal groups - one group is screened annually with x-rays, while the other (consisting of the control group) does not receive such screening.

The preliminary results show that some doctors found something abnormal in nearly 6000 people. They were followed on with CAT scans, more x-rays and other diagnostic tests. From among these people, 206 had biopsies done. Ultimately, 126 people were diagnosed with cancer. This is only 2.1% of the original group of 6000, with abnormalities in their x-rays.

The bad news is that 6000 represented a large number of false positives. It resulted in unnecessary follow-up x-rays, CAT scans, etc. The good news is that those detected with cancer, 44% complete in the earliest stages of the disease - when the cancer is treatable and the chances of survival highest.

The final results of this study will only be available for several years are known. But based on preliminary results, it seems that regular screening for lung cancer with chest x-rays can help to improve early detection and cure rate for this disease.