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MedTech Outlook | Monday, December 23, 2019
A simplified, low-dose radiation CT scan can assist doctors in reducing lung cancer mortality rates.
Fremont, CA Although the improvements in the treatment options for advanced lung cancers have largely improved, it kills more Americans every year as compared to breast, colon, and prostate cancers together. Patients who are diagnosed at the earliest stage have a slight chance of getting cured. Over the past decade, various large trials have indicated that for the people who have a significant smoking history, a straightforward low-dose radiation chest CT scan can help to save lives. The evidence that there is a possibility to save lives with early detection is thrilling. Until now, detecting early-stage lung cancer was accomplished primarily by chance, as tiny lung tumors are generally silent and asymptomatic. The mere probability of a regular, outpatient scan to detect lung cancers before they escalate develops a more optimistic outlook for lung cancer patients to advance.
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Although the breakthroughs have been accomplished in lung cancer care, less than 5 percent of eligible patients choose to undergo this potentially lifesaving screening. Everyone is not suitable for the screening, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has set a benchmark that only asymptomatic current or former smokers between 55 and 77 years old are covered for the annual screening. The smoking history, on an average has to be a pack a day, for a minimum of 30 years. Those who have quit will have to be done so within the last 15 years, and the ones who have not until now must undertake mandatory smoking cessation coun
seling.
These criteria are very rigid. The risk of lung cancer rises in smokers well before 30 years with a pack a day habit. But the CMS has limited the screening to the topmost risk population in order to replicate the government trial criteria.
Lung cancer engenders a nihilistic attitude on most of the potential patients, the belief that one is doomed subdues the desire to be proactive in getting a screening done. The fact is that if a stage 1 lung cancer is detached entirely, there is 90 percent chance to cure the patient, and for that, the efforts need to be intensified.
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