Improving the Odds Against Lung Cancer

by lAurA FreemAn

It’s the most lethal cancer in the United States. However, advances in screening, diagnostics and new therapies are at last improving the prognosis for lung cancer—if it can be detected in time.

“We saw a 20 percent reduction in mortality in a national research program using low dose CT for early screening of patients who are most at risk,” UAB radiology professor Nina Terry, MD said. “Based on those findings, new guidelines suggest an annual screening CT between the ages of 50 and 80 (50 and 77 for

Medicare patients) who smoke 20 packs per year or more, and those who have quit smoking for less than 15 years. Since the CT is low dose, we can screen annually, like we do for breast cancer.”

If there is a questionable area on the image, it can be either watched with follow-up scans or biopsied. Advances in biopsy technology are also making this more comfortable for the patient, as well as more accurate. Interventional pulmonologist Aline Zouk, MD said. “Robotic bronchoscopy allows us to get answers in a less invasive way. Patients can

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