This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Nichole Tanner about annual lung cancer screening for individuals at an increased risk of lung cancer. Dr. Tanner is a Professor in the College of Medicine, and she is Co-Director of the Lung Cancer Screening Program at Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. The goal of lung cancer screening is to detect lung cancer at an early stage, before symptoms appear, when treatment is most likely to be successful and curative. Doctor Nichole Tanner is here to talk about who should consider lung cancer screening and what's involved in this annual screening. Doctor Tanner is a Professor in the College of Medicine, and she's the Co-Director of the Lung cancer Screening Program at Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC. Doctor Tanner, who is eligible to get annual lung cancer screening.
Dr. Tanner: The current recommendations by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for lung cancer screening include people who are ages 50 to 80 who currently smoke cigarettes or previously smoked cigarettes with at least a 20 pack year history. What that means is smoking a pack a day for 20 years, or two packs per day for ten years, etc. And, for people that have quit smoking, they are to have quit within the past 15 years. More recently, the American Cancer Society has released a recommendation to do away with the years since quit. However, this is not currently covered by most insurers.
Conner: What's involved in lung cancer screening?
Dr. Tanner: Lung cancer screening is simple. It happens after a shared decision making conversation with your provider, where the risks, as well as the benefits of lung cancer screening are discussed. And once an individual has decided they want to move forward with the lung cancer screening exam. The scan is very simple and requires no IVs. You simply lay flat on the table and go through the open scanner. The whole exam takes about ten minutes at the most.
Conner: Tell us more details about this scenario of using this kind of cancer screening to catch lung cancer earlier.
Dr. Tanner: Lung cancer screening is meant to find cancers early. In the past, prior to the advent of lung cancer screening, the majority of patients presented with stage three or stage four cancers, which are harder to cure. The whole purpose of doing a lung cancer screening exam is to find a small cancer, an earlier stage cancer, when a patient isn't symptomatic and get them to curative intent treatment.
Conner: And how much of a difference as far as the outcome does it make in catching lung cancer early versus catching it in later stages?
Dr. Tanner: What we know from the very large randomized trials that were done, that proved the benefit of lung cancer screening, is that there is a reduction in lung cancer mortality of anywhere from 20 to 25%. If you couple that with tobacco treatment and getting someone to quit smoking, the mortality benefit is as much as 35%.
Conner: How many eligible people are getting lung cancer screening in the US and in South Carolina?
Dr. Tanner: Yeah, unfortunately, the numbers of screening across the country are lower than other commonly screened for cancers. We estimate that about 20% of those eligible have been screened.
Conner: How can individuals request lung cancer screening? How does that begin?
Dr. Tanner: So, a person can go about getting lung cancer screening in two ways. They can request lung cancer screening, either through their primary care provider, or they can self-refer to the many lung cancer screening programs that are available in the area.
Conner: Doctor Tanner, what's new in recent years related to treatment for lung cancer?
Dr. Tanner: Well, Bobbi, it is a really exciting time for lung cancer treatment. In the past year alone, there have been so many studies that have come out looking at multi-modality approaches that we never used in the past in improving patient survivorship overall.
Conner: Doctor Tanner, thanks for this update about lung cancer screening.
Dr. Tanner: Thanks for having me.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
