This week, the Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists interrupts our update on 10 Lung Cancer Facts to bring you breaking news of critical research from the Mayo Clinic. This blog will feature life-saving information.
A recent study proved that even if your last cigarette was 15 years ago, you are still “at high risk for lung cancer and should be screened.” So, if you were a heavy smoker who quit the habit about 15 years ago, you are most probably still in a high risk group for lung cancer.
By the way, you should know that Lung cancer is the “leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States, with a five-year survival rate of just 17 percent. Smoking causes approximately 85 percent of all lung cancer cases, only 15 percent of which are diagnosed at an early stage.”
Mayo Clinic’s New Research Study
The scientific investigators have concluded that if former smokers with a history of being smoke free at least 15 years were screened, more lives could be saved from this dread disease. Early detection is the key.
Hot New Facts You Need To Know About Lung Cancer and Past Smoking
The study was headed by Ping Yang, M.D., Ph.D., who is an an epidemiologist at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. With his research recently published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Dr. Ping is on a mission to widen the scope of people who should be screened.
Let’s take a look at the logic behind her research:
1. The lung cancer screening criteria set by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) endorses CT screening for you if you are between the ages of 55 and 80 and you have “smoked at least one pack a day for 30 years and are still smoking or have quit within 15 years.”
2. These criteria go to the heart of the matter. Dr. Yang and her colleagues discovered two-thirds of patients in the U.S. with new, definitive diagnosis of lung cancer “would not meet the current USPSTF screening criteria.”
Dr. Yang and her team believes this indicated a need for a re-definition of groups who are at high risk.
3. The sad part of neglecting to scan such smokers is “that fewer people have benefited from early detection of lung cancer, because more patients don’t qualify for low-dose CT scans.” Without early detection, it is much harder to save or extend the lives of patients.
To prove this point, the researchers decided to find out which specific populations:
A. Are at risk, and
B. Are being missed by our usual lung screening criteria.
You might have guessed it: the researchers found the neglected sub group was smokers who quit 15 years ago. They are still at high risk.
The Research Method
Researchers tracked two groups of people who had been diagnosed with lung cancer:
1. Group One was 5,988 hospital grouping composed of patients referred to Mayo Clinic.
2. Group Two consisted of 850 residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota.
3. As they compared the groups, they discovered that, compared to other risk categories, “patients who quit smoking for 15 to 30 years” comprised the largest percentage of patients with lung cancer who did not qualify for screening.
4. In conclusion the high-risk group included “12 percent of the hospital group and 17 percent of the community cohort.”
Dr. Yang stated, “We were surprised to find that the incidence of lung cancer was proportionally higher in this subgroup, compared to other subgroups of former cigarette smokers.” She added, “The common assumption is that after a person has quit for so many years, the lung cancer rate would be so low that it wouldn’t be noticeable. We found that assumption to be wrong.”
The researchers knew this meant that the medical community needed to note people who quit 15 years ago. Obviously, the figures showed these people to be in the high risk group for lung cancer development.
The scientists showed a strong life saving benefit with minimal expense because if we widen the criteria, we would add 19 per cent more CT exams, but we would detect 16 more cases.
Dr. Yang stated, “Lung cancer rates are dropping, because smoking is decreasing, but that doesn’t mean that our current screening parameters are good enough.”
She added, “It is understandable, because the relative importance of risk factors changes over time. We need to adjust screening criteria periodically, so we can catch more lung 
cancers in a timely fashion.”
Thus, her study proves that policy makers should re-examine criteria from time to time to re-evaluate guidelines to account for changes in risk groups.
Now that you know about this study, if you were a smoker 15 or more years ago, and were recently diagnosed with lung cancer, wouldn’t you wish doctors had grouped you in a high risk group so they would have examined you sooner with the proper screening? Remember, if you were in that high risk group, only early detection would save your life or at least extend your days of life.
At Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists, we hope you will tell someone you love, about this research.
And, if you are a smoker, please make your last cigarette of the day, your last one. Please, quit!