Radiologist, key to lung cancer for this

Spanish Society of Medical Radiology (Seram) states that periodic CT chest with low dose radiation In people at risk, it detects lung cancer at an early stage and significantly reduces mortality.

“The greatest benefit from lung cancer screening with chest CT is active smokers and former smokers over 50 years of age with a significant smoking burden,” Marcelo Sanchez, cardiothoracic radiologist at Seram.

Without screening, lung cancer kills more than the sum of all mortality from colon, breast and prostate cancerand overall survival at 5 years is less than 15%. “If lung cancer screening were done, tumors could be detected early and survival would improve,” Sanchez says. Low-dose chest CT is a simple, quick, painless, and easy-to-perform test that does not require intravenous contrast. In addition, it uses much less radiation than a “conventional” CT scan.

Lung cancer screening

Through the European Parliament, the European Union has already spoken clearly and firmly on this issue in favor of lung cancer screening

with low-dose radiation CT of the chest, calling on the countries of the Union to launch lung cancer screening programs at the national level. In fact, there are already several European countries (inside and outside the Union) that have launched national lung cancer screening programs (Poland, Croatia, England…) or are implementing pilot projects to study the required health resources and their feasibility (for example in the case of Spain – through the CASSANDRA project). The establishment of these screening programs should always be accompanied by smoking cessation programs to combine the benefits of primary and secondary prevention.

In addition to detection early lung cancerChest CT screening programs provide an excellent opportunity to detect other common and important pathologies in smokers and ex-smokers, such as coronary calcification (as a marker of coronary artery disease), emphysema (as a marker of COPD), or interstitial pulmonary failure. changes that increase the health benefits of the screened population.

A radiologist’s view of lung cancer

“Radiologists have a privileged position cross section of lung cancer, because we are involved in the entire process, from early diagnosis to assessing response to treatment, determining stage (how advanced the cancer is) or performing a lung biopsy. With regard to lung cancer screening, radiologists play a very important and fundamental role in communicating chest CT studies, deciding which lung nodules require additional investigations (eg, PET/CT or bronchoscopy), or reporting incidental findings. for chest CT examinations that also require evaluation by other medical specialists (for example, the presence of emphysema or coronary artery calcifications), etc.” Sanchez comments.

We must not forget that not only do radiologists play an important role in screening programs, but equally or more important is the adequate assessment of incidental pulmonary nodules in any radiological examination, a scenario in which radiologists decide and determine What treatment will be necessary for this random nodule in the lungs, thus increasing the diagnosis of lung cancer in the early stages.