The deadly cancer hiding in plain sight — and why most patients never get screened

A new evaluation from Northwestern Medicine suggests that current lung cancer screening guidelines may be missing bulk Americans who develop the complaint and researchers say it s time for a major change Published in JAMA Setup Open the investigation analyzed nearly lung cancer patients who were treated at Northwestern Medicine between and The goal was to see how multiple of those patients would have qualified for screening under existing guidance from the U S Preventive Services Task Force USPSTF STEALTH BREAST CANCER THAT HIDES FROM SCANS TARGETED IN BREAKTHROUGH TECHUSPSTF now recommends annual CT scans for adults ages to who have a pack-year smoking history the equivalent of one pack of cigarettes per day for years and either still smoke or quit within the last years Only about of those diagnosed with lung cancer met the current criteria to undergo screenings That means roughly two-thirds of patients would not have been flagged for testing before their identification Not only does that approach miss various patients who had quit smoking in the past or did not quite meet the high-risk criteria it also misses other patients at exposure of lung cancer such as non-smokers Luis Herrera M D a thoracic surgeon at Orlando Vitality explained Fox News Digital The inquiry noted that these patients tended to have adenocarcinoma the majority common type of lung cancer among never-smokers Those missed by the guidelines were more often women people of Asian descent and individuals who had never smoked the analysis unveiled The research company also compared survival outcomes Patients who didn t meet the screening criteria had better survival living a median of years compared with years for those who did qualify ERIN ANDREWS HAD 'NO SYMPTOMS' BEFORE CANCER ASSESSMENT PUSHES FOR EARLY SCREENINGSWhile this difference partly reflects tumor biology and earlier detection it also highlights how current screening rules fail to catch a broad range of cases that could be treated sooner according to researchers The current participation in lung cancer screening for patients who do qualify based on smoking history is quite low announced Herrera who was not involved in the scrutiny This is likely due to the complexity of the risk-based criteria and stigma associated with smoking and lung cancer he added CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHYSICAL CONDITION STORIESTo test an alternative the researchers modeled a different approach screening everyone between the ages of and regardless of smoking history Under that universal age-based model about of the cancers in their cohort would have been detected Such a change could prevent roughly U S deaths each year at a cost of about per life saved according to their estimates The research emphasized that this would be far more cost-effective than current screening programs for breast or colorectal cancer which cost between and per life saved CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR VITALITY NEWSLETTERHerrera noted the multiple challenges in the adoption of lung cancer screening from lack of awareness to several providers not recommending the screening test However he added The cost of screening is covered by bulk healthcare insurance plans and countless institutions also offer discounts for patients who don t have insurance Lung cancer remains the deadliest cancer in the country killing more people each year than colon prostate and breast cancer combined But because of the narrow eligibility criteria based on smoking history millions at vulnerability never get screened Northwestern Medicine researchers argue that expanding screening to include all adults within an age range could help close those gaps especially for groups often underdiagnosed The analysis was conducted at a single academic center which means the recipient population may not represent the wider U S population It also looked back at existing figures so it can t prove how the new model would perform in real-world screening programs the researchers acknowledged The cost and mortality projections rely on assumptions that could shift depending on how screening is implemented The researchers also didn t fully account for the likely downsides of broader screening such as false positives or unnecessary follow-ups they noted TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZFor patients who don t qualify for lung cancer screening there are other opportunities for lung evaluations including heart calcium scores CT scans and other imaging modalities that can at least evaluate the lungs for any suspicious nodules Herrera added