Lung cancer is known as the silent killer because symptoms rarely appear until the cancer is in an advanced stage. That’s according to Dr. Caleb Smith with Boone Health, who advises current and ex-smokers to get regular screenings.
“If you have smoked, specifically, if you’ve smoked about a pack a day for 20 years, a 20-pack year smoking history, and you’re between the ages of 50 and 80, you have a high enough risk of having lung cancer that you would benefit from screening,” he told Missourinet.
The purpose of screening is to find lung cancer in its early stages so it can be treated through radiation or surgery. Smoking is a major contributor for lung cancer, responsible for nearly 90% of cases.
“Screening, the purpose of it, is to find lung cancer early on,” Smith said. “When it’s early stage, it can be cured with either radiation or surgery and avoid developing stage four lung cancer, when it’s spread and has become incurable.”
The five-year survival rate for a Missourian with stage four lung cancer is 26.5%, which is lower than the national average of 28.4%. Smith said to keep an eye out for some early signs.
“Classically, someone may develop a symptom of pneumonia, and they’ll go in and they’ll get a chest x-ray which doesn’t show detail as much as a CT (scan),” he said. “There’ll be a little bit of haziness on the chest x-ray and the doctor will say you may have pneumonia there. They’ll treat you, but the symptoms don’t fully go away.”
Other common early signs include a cough, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
But it’s not just smoking that can cause lung cancer – radon exposure is the second leading cause of lung cancer.
A family history of lung cancer can also increase your risk.
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