CHICAGO: Lung cancer causes the most deaths from cancer in the nation, accounting for about 1 in 4 of all cancer deaths in the U.S. Screening for lung cancer is one of the most effective ways to detect lung cancer at its earliest stages when it is most treatable and even curable. Unfortunately, far too few Americans—only about 6% of eligible patients—are routinely screened for lung cancer, resulting in thousands of preventable deaths every year.
For Lung Cancer Awareness Month and National Smoking Cessation Month, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) supports the second annual National Lung Cancer Screening Day on November 11, which aims to enhance access to lung cancer screening and raise awareness of lung cancer.
Throughout the month, cardiothoracic surgeons, Timothy Mullett, MD, MBA, FACS, and Luis A. Godoy, MD, FACS, of the ACS, are available to discuss who should be screened for lung cancer, and why smoking cessation programs need to be made more widely available and accessible to all patients. Members of the media may email pressinquiry@facs.org to schedule an interview with Dr. Mullett or Dr. Godoy.
What is National Lung Cancer Screening Day?
The second annual National Lung Cancer Screening Day will be held on Saturday, November 11, 2023, coinciding with Veterans Day. Healthcare centers around the country are encouraged to open their doors to eligible patients to provide easier access to lung cancer screening services. The event, which is supported by the ACS and other organizations, aims to improve access to and awareness of lifesaving lung cancer screening services.
“National Lung Cancer Screening Day is a way to make lung cancer screening more accessible to patients and to offer screening to patients at convenient times, after hours, and on weekends to accommodate people who are working and have a busy schedule,” said Dr. Mullett, Chair of the ACS Commission on Cancer (CoC) and Medical Director of the Markey Cancer Center Network Development at the University of Kentucky. “For lung cancer, the first domino to fall was to prove that lung screening works. Now, the barrier is an awareness and access issue.”
The state of Kentucky, where Dr. Mullett is based, has a lung cancer screening rate of about 13%—more than double the national average—and serves as a model for promoting screening to at-risk populations. An advocate and leader in lung cancer awareness and smoking cessation resources, Dr. Mullett recently participated in an initiative of President Biden’s cancer panel, Reducing Cancer Care Inequities: Leveraging Technology to Enhance Patient Navigation, and was also part of a forum in June focused on expanding equitable access to smoking cessation programs.
Why is screening for lung cancer so important?
Lung cancer kills more people than prostate cancer, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer combined. Most symptoms of lung cancer—such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, or coughing up blood—don’t appear until the cancer has already spread and is more difficult to treat.
A powerful screening tool—a low-dose CT scan of the chest—has been proven to save lives by detecting lung cancer before symptoms appear, and when the cancer is most treatable and even curable. Unfortunately, only about 6 % of the eligible population is screened for lung cancer. In some states, screening rates are as low as 1%.
What does screening involve?
The recommended screening tool for lung cancer is the low-dose CT scan, which takes only a few minutes to complete and, in many ways, is less invasive than a colonoscopy or mammogram testing. There is very little prep work involved for the exam and no needles or contrast dye are used.
“The proven mechanism for lung cancer screening is the low-dose CT scan, that’s what’s been shown in the largest randomized control trial ever done in the country,” Dr. Mullett said. “Other screening tools for lung cancer are being tested that include genomic testing and blood tests, but those have not gone through the same rigorous scrutiny of the low-dose CT scan.”
