Lung Cancer Screening is in the news. And the revised and updated guidelines for it could save your life. Before we tell you about the changes, let’s review a few facts about lung cancer:
Brutal Truths About Lung Cancer
Early Lung Cancer Screening Could Save Your Life.
1. Did you know lung cancer is our leading cause of cancer death in the US? This killer disease took the lives of over 131,000 people last year. American Cancer Society.
2. As in most cancer cases, early diagnosis and treatment save lives. You see, most lung cancer symptoms do not begin until the disease is in advanced stages.
3. The difficulty is discovering lung cancer and starting early treatment. That is the Value of Lung Cancer Screening. Low-dose CT scans can identify lung cancer in time for treatment.
4. However, qualifying for Low-dose CT scans to diagnose lung cancer has long been reserved for only those with a long and heavy backstory of smoking—Until now!
5. Because of 1-3 above, only 15 percent of patients live five years after diagnosis. because symptoms often don’t appear until later stages. Additionally, about 70 percent of people have advanced disease at the time they’re diagnosed, according to a study published in February 2020 in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has published brand new guidelines for lung Cancer Screening. Because of revisions in the guides, “More Americans now qualify for yearly, low-dose computerized tomography (CT) scans to detect lung cancer…”
Lung Cancer Screening: The New Rules
Did You Know You Could Have Lung Cancer Without Symptoms? Ask If You Qualify For Lung Cancer Screening.
To put it briefly, the USPSTF’s Updated guidance does 2 big things for you, our patients and lung cancer victims all over the world:
1. Lowering the Age to Qualify for Lung Cancer Screening. “The USPSTF’s updated guidelines lower the age to start screening with CT…”
2. Reduction in the Amount of Smoking History to Qualify for Lung Cancer Screening. According to a recent article in Everyday Health, the USPSTF has also reduced “the amount of smoking history that makes someone eligible…”
Therefore, we can and, expand coverage for lung cancer screening “to vulnerable populations…” For example, “The new, broader, lung cancer screening guidelines make it easier for women and Black Americans to be eligible for lung cancer screening.”
The incredibly good news behind these recommendations is that we might be able to detect cancer at an “earlier, more treatable stage for more minorities, women, and younger people with a history of smoking.”
Comparing Old and New Qualifications for Lung Cancer Screenings
Back in 2013, the more stringent qualifications for Lung Cancer Screening only included people ages 55-77. Plus, they could only qualify if they had maintained a 30 pack-year smoking history.
(By the way, to create one “pack-year” a patient had to have smoked a pack of cigarettes every day for a year or the equivalent amount.) Therefore, under the old qualifications, a 30 Pack-year smoking history only included people who smoked:
- One pack a day for 30 years.
- Or two packs a day for fifteen years.
High Time for a Change
Put More Years In Your Life and More Life In Your Years With Early Testing.
As of March 30, 2021, that changed. The task force now recommends CT screening for adults from 50 to 80 years old. Plus, the pack-year smoking history includes a wider group of people:
1. Smokers with a 20 pack-year smoking history,
2. And still smoke.
3. Likewise, the qualifying profile now includes those patients who established a 20 pack-year smoking history and quit within the last 15 years.
Therefore, if you are in the age bracket, and if you have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years, you qualify for the Lung Cancer Screening. Additionally, if you smoked 2 packs a day for 10 years within the past 15 years, you also qualify for screening.
New Improved Lung Cancer Screening Guidelines: Help on Every Level
Because of these new USPTF rules, doctors, and staff at FLASS are happy to help spread the word that many insurers will not be charging a co-pay fee to Lung Cancer Screening patients. We think that is wonderful news, both for your health and your wallet.
Michael Wert, MD, a pulmonary critical care physician at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center in Columbus, explained the change. “This expansion was based on years and years of research and determining who the highest risk patients are.”
Now, due to these changes, more women, more Black Americans, and younger people will be eligible for testing. These are two of the groups that tend to develop lung cancer at an earlier age with less exposure to smoking.
Big Benefits of Screening and a Bombshell Realization
Because of screening with a CT scan, lung doctors can make a diagnosis before a patient develops symptoms.
Dr. Wert stated, “Until 10 to 15 years ago, we were not screening for lung cancer, and the five-year survival rates for lung cancer definitely showed that…”
However, here is the bombshell realization that is distressing to FLASS healthcare providers: Both patients and doctors often neglect to request this test.
Dr. Wert added, “Lung cancer historically lagged very far behind breast, colon, prostate, and cervical as far as early detection screening survival.”
Lung Cancer Screening: Watching for More Recommendations
Now we have a larger population that can anticipate having this life-saving test. However, will doctors and patients continue to underutilize it? We hope not. Still, research states “only a small percentage of people who qualified” for testing underwent a CT scan. Research also reveals that 60 to 80 percent of eligible people always take the tests that screen for other cancers, like colon cancer or breast cancer.
Therefore, Florida Lung, Asthma, and Sleep Specialists are concluding it is an educational issue. We are committed to a mission to get the word out to patients that this wonderful life-saving test exists. And now you might qualify.
Dr. Wert put it this way, “What I tell people is if you even think you might be a candidate for screening,” And he adds, “Even if you’re not sure, the worst thing that happens is you reach out to your provider, and they say you don’t qualify.”
Terrific Take-Aways from our Lung Cancer Screening Update
Due to New Regulations, More People Qualify For Lung Testing Without Co-Pay.
USPSTF member Dr. Michael Barry summed up the new developments like this. “The bottom line is that “by screening people who are younger and who have smoked fewer cigarettes, we can save more lives and help people remain healthy longer,”
He is in an excellent position to know the facts since he is the director of the Informed Medical Decisions Program in the Health Decision Sciences Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
We know we saw a significant reduction in mortality rates in patients who took CT screening. Let’s make that happen for twice the number of lung cancer victims.
You see, the new guidelines will qualify 15 million people to have the screening. That doubles the previous number of qualified patients. So, let’s spread the word that Lung Cancer Screening could save your life or the life of someone you love.