- What is lung cancer?
- Lung cancer is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the lungs. These abnormal cells
often grow together in clumps called tumors. The tumors destroy and replace
normal, healthy tissue and interfere with organ function.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Every year, lung cancer
kills more people than breast cancer, prostate cancer and colon cancer combined. Today, substantially
more women die from lung cancer that from breast cancer. It is firmly established that the
overwhelming majority of lung cancers are caused by smoking cigarettes.
Other important risk factors are exposure to
asbestos fibers, natural radon gas or air pollution. Unfortunately, lung cancer is usually detected late in the course of the disease. When
the first symptoms occur, such as a cough, the cancer has often already grown to an advanced stage
and can rarely be cured (over 85% five year mortality).
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- Am I at risk for getting lung cancer?
- The main risk factor for getting lung cancer is exposure to cigarette smoke.
There is no “safe” number of cigarettes—no “lower limit” on the number you can smoke each
day and not be at risk of getting lung cancer. It is known that smoking more than 20 cigarettes
(a standard pack) per day for 10 years substantially increases your risk of developing lung cancer.
It is currently debated whether inhaling second-hand smoke from others
actually puts you at a higher risk
for developing lung cancer.
The other major risk factor is asbestos exposure. Asbestos is a
noncombustible, fibrous material that was once used very commonly in
fireproofing, electrical insulation, building materials, brake linings, and
chemical filters. Most exposure was work-related, though you could have encountered
asbestos while making repairs or renovations to an older home. If you were exposed to asbestos
fibers, you have an increased risk of getting lung cancer.
Like most cancers, lung cancer tends to occur later in life. Lung cancer is rarely observed in people under
the age of 45-50 years.
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- What can I do to prevent lung cancer?
- The best way to reduce your risk of getting lung cancer is to stop smoking. Besides quitting smoking,
participation in a lung cancer early detection program would be your best bet.
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- Do I Need a Physician Referral to have a CT Lung Scan?
- You do not need a physician referral to schedule a CT Lung screening scan. Because this is a screening
procedure, please be aware that this exam is not covered by Medicare or group health insurance at this time
(see next question). Payment must be made at the time of the exam. Urgent results will be phoned immediately
to your physician, otherwise the results of your exam will be mailed you and your physician in a few days.
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- I am risk for lung cancer, does insurance pay for my CT scan?
- At this time most insurance companies do not pay for screening chest CT
exams in asymptomatic patients, be they smokers or non-smokers.
Insurance companies will reimburse the expense for medically necessary
tests. If you have a clear indication for a chest CT scan such as a
chronic, unexplained cough or emphysema, then your physician may order you
to have a chest CT to evaluate your condition. If you believe that
your medical insurance may pay for your chest CT exam, you should check with
your physician prior to scheduling your exam. Otherwise, Advanced Body
Scan of Newport requires payment in full at the time of the examination.
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- What Can I Expect During A CT Lung scan?
- After a brief medical history is taken, you will be positioned by a technologist on the CT table.
No preparation is required. You will be asked to hold your breath for about 20 seconds and then your
exam will be over. There is no injection of I.V. contrast involved. The entire exam takes less than a minute
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- My lung scan is negative, when do I need a follow-up CT scan?
- First, congratulations on having a negative test. This is the $64,000
question. At this time no one knows. Unlike colon cancer and
breast cancer, which are slow growing tumors so that we doctor's can
recommend repeat sigmoidoscopy (or colonoscopy) every 5 to 10 years for
early colon cancer detection and mammograms every 1 to 2 years for breast
cancer detection, cancers of the lung are more aggressive and faster growing
tumors. This means that your scan may turn positive as soon as three
to six months after your first scan. In the absence of definitive
recommendations, we are recommending that anyone at risk for lung cancer
should undergo repeat CT chest scans at least once yearly as a minimum lung
cancer screening protocol. Hopefully, we will be able to give you a
better answer in the not too distant future.
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- I may be at risk for lung cancer but my Doctor has not
recommended a screening chest CT scan. Why is this?
- Unfortunately, the medical community in the United States still considers
lung cancer screening controversial and you will find physicians on both
sides of the debate. Lung cancer screening with annual chest X-rays
was the standard of care in the United States up until the 1970's.
Then the results of research studies on the effectiveness of screening for
lung cancer with chest X-ray found that although it was possible to discover
lung cancers earlier with chest X-ray, the cancers found were already too
large and therefore, too advanced to treat and so these screening programs
utilizing conventional chest X-ray did not improve the mortality of the
disease. Because of these studies, lung cancer screening programs were
abandoned in the 1970's and resources were diverted from early
detection programs to prevention programs. Only recently that it has
been shown that CT technology, which can detect growths much smaller than
what can be seen with conventional chest X-ray, is effective in finding lung
cancers early when they are more likely to be at a curable stage. The
National Cancer Institute is currently enrolling 50,000 participants between
the ages of 55 to 74 in the
National Lung Screening Trial.
The American Cancer Society has not yet taken a position on lung cancer
screening with CT technology. Advanced Body Scan of Newport has
decided to let the patient decide whether or not he (she) should have a
screening chest CT scan as it may take many years before this debate is
finally settled.
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- Are there any risks to CT lung cancer screening?
- We know that that from 25 to 50 percent of individuals undergoing screening CT
lung scans will have some abnormality (such as small nodules or abnormal clusters
of cells). The majority of the time, these abnormal findings are not lung cancer. However,
these abnormal findings --old smoking scars, areas of inflammation, other noncancerous
conditions-- can mimic lung cancer on CT scan and will require additional
testing. If small lesions are found in a person undergoing CT lung cancer
screening; however, we will ask that person to return for repeat examinations after several
months. If their lesion is larger on a later examination, this growth may indicate malignancy
(cancer). Again, in most cases, no cancer is found. But by keeping track of any changes in
the lesions, we can be more certain that a cancer will be detected early if it is present.
These additional tests may cause anxiety or may lead to biopsy or surgery.
In addition, there is the possibility that the tumor found with the
screening CT exam may be very small and would never grown to become life
threatening. Because some things remain unknowable, clinical trials are
underway and the final answer remains in the future.
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