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Medical Study Lung cancer screening in smokers can save lives
Lung cancer is still underestimated according to health experts. Recognizing that much of the disease is related to tobacco use, it is repeatedly stressed how important it is to give up smoking. Strong smokers should be examined - this can save lives.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death
Around one in four people in the European Union is dying of cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Europe. It was recently reported that the death rate from lung cancer among women in Germany has risen again. Experts believe that about 85 percent of the diseases are related to tobacco use. Smokers should therefore be examined regularly.
According to a US study, lung cancer screening can reduce the mortality rate of this cancer by 20 percent. (Image: liukovmaksym / fotolia.com) Screening program for heavy smokers saves lives
Experts at a meeting of the Central European Initiative against Lung Cancer in Prague agreed on the statement: A lung cancer screening program for heavy smokers is saving lives.
A US study with CT tests revealed a 20 percent reduction in lung cancer mortality.
"We should screen for the presence of lung cancer," said Hungarian expert Anna Kerpel-Fronius (Budapest), according to the news agency.
"Every day we see patients who come to us with symptoms such as coughing, bloody sputum, etc. These are patients with advanced inoperable disease and metastases. What we want to see in the future are patients with a small single tumor in their lungs that can be easily removed. The patients are cured. "
One cigarette pack per day for 30 years
A few years ago a study of 53,000 subjects appeared in the journal "New England Journal of Medicine", which showed that screening can detect lung cancer earlier and thus save many lives.
For the investigation persons were searched, who had accomplished at least "30 Pack-Years", thus thirty pack-years. This means that those affected smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years or three packs a day for ten years.
Half of the study participants aged 55 to 74 were examined once a year in a spiral computer tomograph with low-dose radiation for changes in the lung.
In the other half of the participants, the chest was x-rayed once a year, the usual method for examining lungs for changes.
Mortality lowered by 20 percent
The subjects were followed after three of these rounds of screening for two to five years. It was found that 20 percent fewer people died in the CT group during this period than in the X-ray group.
The images from the CT had been more accurate and the diagnostic rate thus higher.
John K. Field of the University of Liverpool Cancer Research Center, who led the study in the US, said that every year that was delayed to use lung cancer screening in high-risk patients could cost tens of thousands of lives.
Not all experts are convinced of the screenings
However, not all experts are convinced of the screenings. Thus, the study from the US was not meaningful enough, because the subjects were not observed long enough.
In addition, it has been reported in the past from the United States that lung abnormalities found in CT examinations did not appear to be a precursor to cancer in subsequent years in nearly a quarter of cases.
The situation was similar in the case of the aforementioned investigation. According to APA, Libor Havel from Thomayer Hospital in Prague said: "In the US study, 25 percent of subjects in the lungs found suspicious round spots. However, 96 percent of them were not carcinomas, "said the doctor.
Nevertheless, follow-up examinations, for example with biopsies, had to be carried out. "However, the US study also saved 88 patients who would have died otherwise."
He also referred to the complex situation for such a procedure for the discovery of lung carcinoma in asymptomatic individuals: "A screening program only makes sense between the earliest possible detectability of a disease and the time to onset of symptoms. At the same time, the time must be chosen so that the finding plays a role in any therapy. "(Ad)