Your cancer, your life - screening for lung cancer (conclusion)


        YOUR CANCER, YOUR LIFE - SCREENING FOR LUNG CANCER (CONCLUSION)
Although this all sounds so discouraging, lung cancer screening programmes have been tried. A high-risk population was chosen for testing—males over forty-five who were heavy smokers. X-rays and sputum cytology were repeated every four months. Some early cases were picked up and operated on successfully, but there were still patients who developed symptoms of cancer between screens, that is, in the four month breaks. Some of the cases picked up at screening had already spread. The numbers of patients eventually dying of lung cancer were not convincingly less than those for a group of men who were not screened regularly. Therefore, for lung cancer at least, there is so far no effective method of screening.
Let me stress that all of the above refers to patients with no symptoms. All I am saying is that patients diagnosed by these screening methods did no better in the long run than patients who were diagnosed and treated as soon as they developed symptoms. The screening tests weren't good enough. They only picked up the same proportion of curable cancers as are picked up ,irf patients who go to the doctor as soon as they develop symptoms. Don't take this to mean that you shouldn't go and have tests if you have any symptoms that could be due to cancer. The longer you leave it, the worse your chances. With many types of cancer, the only cases that are ever cured are the ones that haven't spread before diagnosis and treatment. The later cancer is diagnosed, the more likely it is to have spread.
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Cancer
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