The + in health
Low-dose chest CT-scan – it is recommended by the American guidelines as early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.
Lung cancer or bronchogenic cancer is one of the most frequent types of cancer and is the principal cause of death from cancer. In the USA it is estimated that the possibility that a man is affected by lung cancer is approximately 8% and for a woman it is approximately 6%. Smoking is the principal predisposing factor and it is estimated that 85% of lung cancer cases are due to smoking. The risk increases proportionally with the increase of the number of cigarettes and the duration of smoking. It is evaluated in pack-years, where a pack-year corresponds to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for one year. The risk also increases with the age of the person, as most of lung cancer cases occur after 55 years of age. 90% of the people that will be affected by the disease will die from it and its complications, principally due to its late detection. The early detection of lung cancer and particularly of the small-cell type of lung cancer is connected with a better prognosis.
After an important study by an independent group of specialists in the USA (USPSTF – US. Preventive Services Task Force) that deals with prevention in the USA, which regarded 53,454 persons, the group concluded that, people 55 to 80 years old with a smoking history of more than 30 pack-years, that still smoke or quitted less than 15 years ago, should annually undergo low-dose chest CT-scanning, for the early detection of lung cancer.
According to the guidelines of the American Cancer Society, from now on, all smokers or persons who quitted smoking less than 15 years ago with a smoking history of 30 pack-years or more, and are between 55 and 74 years old, should undergo every year a preventive low dose lung CT-scan, and this test is fully covered by social security funds in the United States, where the high importance that is being paid to healthcare expenditure is widely known.
The annual examination should stop 15 years after the cessation of smoking, when some other serious health problem occurs, or when the overall condition of the patient does not allow for a possible lung surgery.
Unfortunately, the European Society for Medical Oncology has not issued relevant guidelines, although many European countries already implement national programs of medical (presymptomatic) screening, such as Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
The dose of ionizing radiation from a low-dose chest Computed Tomography scan is estimated to five to ten times the radiation of a simple chest X-ray of two views (back to front/lateral), which means that the radiation is not that high compared to the diagnostic value of the examination.
We hope that, in the near future, a respective program of medical pre-symptomatic screening is also implemented in our country for persons that need it in combination with the respective programs of smoking cessation, so that lung cancer mortality, which is developing into a scourge, is reduced.
References:
- Wiener R. S., Gould M. K., Arenberg D. A., Au D. H., Fennig K., Lamb C. R., Mazzone P. J., Midthun D. E., Napoli M., Ost D. E., Powell C. O., Rivera P., Slatore C. J., Tanner N. T., Vachani A., Wisnivesky J. P. and Yoon H. S.; on behalf of the ATS/CHEST Committee on Low-Dose CT Lung Cancer Screening in Clinical Practice (2015) An Official American Thoracic Society/American College of Chest Physicians Policy Statement: Implementation of Low-Dose Computed Tomography Lung Cancer Screening Programs in Clinical Practice. American Thoracic Society Documents. 192 (7) p. 881–891.
EDGE HEALTHCARE
The diagnostic center Asklipios has a CT-scanner of the latest technology and provides high level medical services, with the performance of CT-scanning with a radiation dose that is 10 times less compared to conventional CT-scanners plus the advantage of high distinguishing accuracy (with high resolution images) in less than 1 minute. The above characteristics consist an important asset for the clinical doctor.
More particularly, the benefits of the CT-scanner (Somatom Definition Flash), and its superior characteristics compared to the conventional CT-scanners are listed below:
- The test is performed in fractions of a second. The faster possible scanning of the chest in 0.6sec.
- With the X-CARE innovation, the radiation dose is reduced by 40% in radiation-sensitive areas of the body (breast - thyroid) without any loss of image quality.
- With the use of two radiation sources – additional contrast is achieved without any additional radiation load.