Deaths from lung cancer within the United States of America total more than the combined deaths from other styles of cancer. To keep away from such a dying, refusing to take up smoking gives one the best chance. For individuals who smoke, quitting is the only sensible option. For those who cannot quit smoking, a CT scan—which costs a lot of money—improves their odds of survival better than a more affordable chest x-ray.
CT scans reduce lung cancer deaths 20 percent
The National Cancer Institute reports that those who are smokers and former smokers should get a CT scan once a year. This will reduce the number of deaths by 20 percent that come from lung cancer. The study tracked more than 53,000 current or ex-smokers middle-aged and older who smoked at least a pack a day for 30 years. Those that had an annual procedure called a low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) were in contrast to those who had the traditional chest x-ray. Because of the difference in mortality that it had, the NCI ended the study early in order to let those within the study know.
Difficulties when screening for lung cancer with CT
There are some obstacles CT scans for lung cancer have to overcome. The study failed to mention these. CT scans for lung cancer can get quite pricey. Health insurance companies don't usually cover this including Medicare. A chest CT scan costs $1,800 as an average according to newchoicehealth.com. Most plans do cover the standard chest x-ray for lung cancer which only costs an average of $370 anyway. Then there's radiation. That wasn't considered. Chest x-rays don't put nearly as much radiation into a patient as a CT scan does. In fact, it is about 15 times more radiation. Sometimes, suspicious anomalies that aren't actually tumors are found by the CT scan too.
Death by lung cancer stopped with CT scan screening
There are a lot of smokers within the U.S. 80 million people get this title. Because lung cancer is diagnosed too late, about 85 percent of patients with it die. CBS News reports that 67-year-old Steffani Torrighelli understood she was a high risk for lung cancer after 50 years of smoking. She enrolled within the study just two years ago. There weren't any lung cancer symptoms shown in her first annual CT scan for lung cancer screening although an early stage tumor had been found. The tumor had been surgically removed and two years later Torrighelli is cancer free and committed to an annual CT scan for lung cancer screening.
Articles cited
Washington Post
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110407687_2.html
CBS News
cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/04/eveningnews/main7023357.shtml
New Choice Health
newchoicehealth.com/Directory/Procedure/8/Chest%20CT%20Scan
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