To Your Health: Lung cancer preventable and detectable

The number of new lung cancer cases diagnosed each year in the United States is decreasing, partly because fewer Americans smoke each year. Advancements in early detection and treatment of lung cancer have helped reduce the yearly deaths caused by the disease too.

So, things are moving in the right direction. But the work is far from done.

Lung cancer is still responsible for more than 200,000 new diagnoses every year in the U.S. alone, and it remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide by a significant margin. Since November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, let’s take some time to understand the risk factors and symptoms associated with the disease before we discuss screening and eligibility.

Smoking is by far the leading cause of lung cancer. Other risk factors can increase your odds of developing lung cancer, but tobacco use is responsible for 80 percent of lung cancers. What that tells us is our risk is significantly reduced if we never smoke or quit before we do too much damage.

Non-smokers do develop lung cancer. Radon exposure, chemical exposure and pre-existing lung disease like emphysema or COPD can also increase your risk, but avoiding smoking is your best defense against lung cancer and several other life-threatening conditions.

During early stages, lung cancer often doesn’t produce symptoms, which can make it hard to detect. During more advance stages, symptoms can include persistent cough, coughing up blood, hoarseness or voice changes, shortness of breath, unintentional weight loss, pain in the chest, swelling in the face or neck, difficulty or pain while swallowing, and lumps in the neck or chest region.

Annual lung cancer screenings have become an important tool for early detection in high-risk patients. Screenings are non-invasive, painless, and they only take a few minutes. They’re done using low-dose CT scan to produce a detailed image of the lungs. The process uses 75 percent less radiation than a traditional CT scan and helps us find lung cancer in early stages when it’s more treatable.

To be eligible for yearly lung cancer screening, you must:

· Be between the ages of 50 and 80

· Have a 20-pack-year history of smoking (which means you smoked a pack a day for 20 years, two packs a day for 10 years, or any variation that equates to that frequency. Your doctor can help you calculate your pack-year history.)

· Currently smoke or have quit smoking within the last 15 years

If you meet these criteria, talk to you doctor about your risk for lung cancer and whether yearly lung cancer screening is right for you. If you’re a good candidate, you should treat your yearly screening just like you would a colonoscopy or a mammogram. These preventive exams are tools we can use to keep tabs on our health so we can understand if it’s changing and determine the most appropriate course of treatment if it’s changing in a concerning way.

Dr. Alfred Casale, a cardiothoracic surgeon, is chief medical officer for surgical services for Geisinger and chair of the Geisinger Heart and Vascular Institute. Readers may write to him via ae@timesleader.com.