Lung cancer screening extends life. Now there is proof, real-world demonstration of the fact that subjecting people at risk to annual checks really allows us to diagnose this big killer tumor earlier, with more hope of curing it. To promote a secondary prevention approach that our country intends to adopt on a national scale (“I hope that Italy becomes the first EU nation to have lung cancer screening”, stated the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci last March , guest in Rome of the Adnkronos Q&A event 'Health and healthcare, a shared challenge') is a study conducted on US veterans and published in 'Cancer', the magazine of the American Cancer Society.
Lung cancer, the authors recall, is the main cause of death from cancer in the world and in most cases it is discovered when it is already in an advanced stage. There are recommendations that adults between the ages of 50 and 80, who smoke at least 20 packs a year or who have stopped smoking within the previous 15 years, should undergo annual imaging tests for the early detection of breast cancer. pomone. Several clinical trials have confirmed the usefulness of this type of screening, but real-life data are limited. Hence the idea of evaluating the actual impact of the program among patients followed by the Veterans Health Administration, the healthcare system active in the States aimed at veterans, who had received a diagnosis of lung cancer in the period 2011-2018.
Of a total of 57,919 patients affected by cancer, 2,167 (3.9%) had undergone screening before diagnosis. Well, among the latter, higher rates of early diagnosis were observed (52% of stage I cases, compared to 27% among the unscreened group), as well as lower rates of death from any cause (49.8% against 72 .1%) and death from cancer (41% versus 70.3%) in 5 years. “It is incredible to witness how national efforts to increase screening within the Precision Lung Oncology Program can lead to substantial improvements in disease outcomes,” comments Michael Green of the University of Michigan for the authors. and the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System.
