Claudia Henschke, Ph.D., M.D., a radiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City recently stated, “This is a huge step. This is going to save a lot of lives. She was responding to the news that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has endorsed the annual low-dose CT lung cancer screening, for certain patients.

The approval is for annual testing of adults ages 55 through 79 who have a 30 pack-year history of smoking, as well as patients who have quit smoking in the past 15 years. The Florida Lung Doctors have been bringing you blogs about the screening studies in previous blogs, and we believe cancer specialists, pulmonologists and lung doctors everywhere will rejoice at this news.

Medical and Financial Newsflash!

More good news is that this CT scan has been awarded a grade B status, and this means that the ruling “paves the way” for reimbursement from Medicare and private insurance. According to Therese Bevers, M.D., director of the MD Anderson Cancer Prevention Center in Houston, “Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies are required to cover any screening service that is given an A or B rating by the USPSTF without any copay or deductible.

This fact delights health care professionals because now more patients will be able to afford the test, which can cost from $50.00 to $400.00.

About the Low Dose CT Scan

Sadly, often cancerous tumors in the lungs are metastasized by the time the patient consults with a pulmonologist. With this tool, and its more affordable price-tag, physicians should now have more opportunities to cure patients. Why? Low dose CT scanning can detect tumors at an early stage before they metastasize.

Two USPSTF Cautions!

1. We must note that USPSTF also warned physicians that the sensitivity of this test requires careful assessment. No one wants to biopsy tiny benign tumors or cause high anxiety in a patient with false readings. Zab Mosenifar, M.D., a pulmonologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles stated, “The responsibility lies in the hands of pulmonologists, oncologists, and thoracic surgeons, to make prudent decisions on how to investigate these lesions, and make sure not to subject patients with benign entities that are detected on the CT scan to undergo invasive procedures.” We are reminded that modern scans and medical tools are only as successful as the doctors who utilize them and interpret them.

2. Another concern expressed by the USPSTF was that there was nothing about the scan to coerce the patient to quit smoking. Scanning is not a substitute for stopping the smoking habit.

Dr. Mosenifar added, “As time goes on, we’re going to have more and more research about how to select patients in a smarter way, and how to identify who is a positive and who is a negative in a smarter way so that we can reduce the risk and really maximize the benefit of lung cancer screening,” he said. “So I think this is really just the beginning.”

A long time supporter of Low Dose CT Scanning for lung cancer, Claudia Henschke, Ph.D., M.D., the radiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, who is quoted at the beginning of this article, struck an emotional chord in all lung specialists, when she commented, “I get choked up because it really will make a tremendous difference, more than anything else for cancer, for all cancers combined.”

If you want to find out more about the statistics behind the study and the new recommendations, The Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Center Specialists recommend you visit this source of up to the minute medical news.

SPECIAL NOTE:  We take this moment to again welcome the newest member of our staff at the Florida Lung, Asthma & Sleep Specialists, Dr. Don Elton, M.D.  See his newly revised introduction to Orlando here.  Stay tuned for more from our “Summer of Amazement, 2013.”