La Rioja joins a project to identify operable tumors and reduce mortality from lung cancer

La Rioja is one of the autonomous communities that are planning to join the Cassandra lung cancer screening project. In fact, as Rioja2 has learned, the government of La Rioja is currently carrying out an economic assessment of the implementation of this program, the date of which is not yet known, since it is a program that must be financed by the autonomous communities.

Specifically, the SERIS manual explains that “preliminary steps in joining any project involving one or more hospital services require an in-depth analysis of the objectives and characteristics of said project by the participating professionals. The result of this analysis will be a technical and economic report before a decision is made, and although the hospital wishes to join Project Cassandra, the above steps cannot be ignored, as all hospitals do.”

Project Cassandra: Low Radiation as a Screening Tool

The Spanish Society of Pulmonology, Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) and other scientific societies are promoting the national pilot project CASSANDRA (Cancer Screening, Smoking Cessation and Respiratory Assessment), a multicenter and interdisciplinary program that includes low-dose CT and computed tomography. screening tool combined with tobacco cessation and collaboration with primary care. The pilot project aims to provide evidence on the availability of lung cancer screening in our country, which will help its implementation in the national health system in the future. Indeed, the goal of this project is that Cassandra could become a method for early diagnosis of other smoking-related diseases, such as COPD, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis or coronary heart disease.

Thus, sources consulted by this publication explain that the risk group that needs to be screened are smokers aged 50 to 75, “it doesn’t matter whether they want to quit smoking or not, because the goal is is to identify patients who can undergo surgery, that is, finding operable tumors with the goal of curing them.” In Spain, more than 29,000 cases of lung cancer are diagnosed every year, and every 20 minutes one person dies from this cause. These numbers are expected to be reduced with this pilot project because screening with low-dose radiation CT allows for early detection and reduces mortality.

Thus, smokers aged 50 to 75 years will be able to take part in this pilot project. Former smokers aged 50 to 75 years with a pack-year index equal to or greater than 20 and non-smokers. haven’t smoked for more than 15 years. Because lung cancer is much more common in smokers or ex-smokers, and therefore the benefit of screening has been demonstrated in individuals of an age and smoking history that justifies intervention.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of tumor death

Lung cancer is the number one cause of death from tumors, the third most common, and “it kills the most,” says a medical professional. The survival rate, he continues, “is 13% at 5 years.” A US study found that “when low-level CT scans were performed on people with risk factors, the mortality rate was reduced by 20 percent.” The study was repeated in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, England… and the results are consistent, as they indicate a reduction in mortality of 20% in men and 45% in women. “So the idea is to carry out these tests in La Rioja with people with risk factors to try to bring these numbers down.”

Although the best prevention, this medical professional says, is to quit smoking. In recent days, World No Tobacco Day has been celebrated, “but this date should be every day.” Attention sailors. Half of smoking patients will die from cardiovascular diseases or diseases caused by smoking. One in eight smokers develops lung cancer. “The data is terrible,” says this doctor, “and women are already catching up with men in this habit, because lung cancer used to occur in one woman for every 10 or 12 men, and this distance is already closing because.” Lung cancer now affects one woman for every 3.5 men.” The number he dares to reach will be equal. “In the United States, the number of women with lung cancer is already higher than that of men.”

These figures confirm the importance of education and awareness, especially among young people, as 25% of people over 18 years of age smoke, and this is an alarming figure: “the age of onset of smoking among minors is 13–14 years with an additional problem.” that from this age, 13-14 years, every fifth minor already smokes.”