Yale doctor: Getting screened for lung cancer could save your life
Survival best when cancer caught early
ex-smokers would have a better chance at avoiding a fatal case of lung cancer if they got their annual screening, but few do, according to the chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital.
“You can increase survival by 15 to 20 percent” if lung cancer is caught early, said Dr. Roy Herbst.
But, he said “probably 5 to 10 percent of people who should get screened” do.
According to the latest guidelines, anyone between 50 and 80 years old who smokes or has quit within the past 15 years and who has at least a 20 pack-peryear smoking history should receive an annual low-dose CT scan.
Packs per year is computed by the number of packs smoked per day multiplied by the number of years smoked.
It’s important to detect lung cancers early because “once lung cancer’s metastasized, it’s almost not curable,” Herbst said.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. This year there will be more than 235,000 new cases diagnosed and more than half of those patients, 132,000, will die. November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.
Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, but 20 percent of deaths are people who have never smoked, according to the society’s website. But according to the American Lung Association’s annual Lung Health Barometer, only 36 percent of those surveyed know screening is available.
There has been a 33 percent improvement in the five-year survival rate for lung cancer in the past 10 years, according to the American Lung Association. “In my career I’ve seen amazing therapies, immunotherapies, lives that have been saved,” Herbst said.
He said one reason for the low screening rate is both knowledge and access, especially in New Haven.
“People can’t get to the hospital. People are not aware. We’ve got to get the message out to communities,” especially to people of color, who have higher rates of smoking and lung cancer, Herbst said.
Another issue is “it’s not easy to biopsy if you find something that needs to be biopsied,” Herbst said.
It’s more complicated than a breast biopsy, for example, he said.
Among the newer immunotherapies is one that targets non-small cell lung cancer with a certain gene mutation known as EFGR, which about 10 percent of patients have.
It “tends to spread so quickly and it tends to metastasize to the liver, lung, brain and bone,” Herbst said.
Given after surgery and chemotherapy, osimertinib, marketed by AstraZeneca as Tragrisso, brought an 83 percent reduction in the risk of cancer returning or death in a clinical trial, according to a release.
“We’re making great strides in lung cancer with targeted … immunotherapy,” Herbst said.