What is Lung Cancer Screening?
What is Screening?
Screening is a test given to a person with no symptoms of a disease. Pap smears, colonoscopies, PSA tests and mammograms are examples of cancer screening tests.
Doctors and cancer organizations encourage and routinely give these tests. The tests are for catching and curing cancer at the earliest, most treatable stages. The most reliable method we have now for finding lung cancer early is with Computed Tomography (CT) scans. CT scans are for people at high risk of lung cancer.
In the future, there may be other tests doctors will give with CT scans, but not now.
Landmark Study Shows 10 Year Survival Rate of 92%
On Wednesday, October 26, 2006, the New England Journal of Medicine published a paper by Claudia Henschke, MD and David Yankelevitz, MD. Drs. Henschke and Yankelevitz are founders and principle investigators of the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP). Their paper was on the results of their 13 year study on screening for lung cancer.
The I-ELCAP study found that with CT screening lung cancer was detected at the earliest stage (Stage I) in 85% of people at high risk. They found this can lead to an estimated 10 year survival rate of 88%. The estimated 10 year survival rate goes even higher, to 92%, for those whose early detected cancers are removed immediately.