CT SCANS REDUCE LUNG CANCER DEATHS! EXCITING NEWS FOR LUNG CANCER AWARNESS MONTH!

From the Washington Post, November 4th, 2010:

"Screening former or current smokers with high-tech scans can significantly cut deaths from lung cancer, according to a long-awaited federal study released Thursday."

Read the entire article here.

The following commentary on the report was originally published by our parent organization, The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation (BJALCF), of which we are an affiliate.

[November 4, 2010] Today is Independence Day around the world, and a new chance at freedom from Lung Cancer. Today breaks a 40-year silence surrounding care for Lung Cancer victims.

“This is fantastic news,” says Bonnie J. Addario, “Although we already knew this, didn’t we? Which is why we started the Demand a Scan screening program four years ago. This is the beginning of significantly increasing the survival rate for lung cancer for the first time in forty years.”

According to Dr. David Jablons, BJALCF co-founder,”The results of the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial are positive. The addition of CT screening in at risk patients (prior smokers over 50 yrs of age) demonstrate a 20% reduction in the risk of lung cancer specific death. This is an enormous step forward for improving outcomes for lung cancer patients and for preventing thousands of deaths that would occur without screening. It is an exciting vindication of the Foundation’s longstanding belief and policy that CT screening of the appropriate population of patients saves lives in real time today…”

Addario Lung Cancer Medical Board (ALCMI)’s Scientific Leadership Board member Dr. Harvey Pass says, “This is a landmark study which once and for all validates the role of low dose helical CT in saving the lives of patients with lung cancer. Since the original report by Henschke and Yankelevitz that lung cancer screening could detect early lung cancers, there has been controversy over the types of lung cancers detected, the proper management of the CT findings, and whether the mortality as opposed to survival is impacted by CT screening. There is no doubt now that the 20% reduction in mortality shown in this randomized trial with the use of CT screening in high risk individuals represents the most robust answer to these questions that could not be accurately answered from using outdated, earlier lung cancer modeling. Lung cancer, when detected early, is a treatable disease with long term survivorship, and the use of CT scans for early detection will save lives. Implementation of these findings into our health care system, and recognition of lung cancer screening as the standard of care can now move forward without delay.”