Lung Cancer Screening for Current and Former Smokers

There has been a call for attention to lung cancer screening for current and former smokers. Studies show that this demographic does not get screened for lung cancer, even though they are at an increased risk for the deadly disease.

The study was created to highlight the need to educate doctors and at-risk patients about lung cancer screening, according to the American Cancer Society researchers.

Research analysis of federal government data showed that the proportion of eligible current and former smokers who underwent lung cancer screening in the past 12 months remained low at 3.3 percent in 2010 to 3.9 percent in 2015.

Those percentages would translate to there being 6.8 million current and former smokers who are eligible for lung cancer screening, but only 262,700 received it.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography for people aged 55 to 80 with a “30-pack or more per year smoking history.”

Research suggests this could reduce lung cancer deaths in this group of patients by 20 percent, the study authors said.

Read the full article from WebMD here.


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