During the Asia Conference on Lung Cancer (ACLC22), promoted by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, which took place from October 27th to 29th in Nara, Japan, physician Gee-Chen Chang, who works in the pulmonary medicine at the Department of Internal Medicine and Chung Shan Medical University Hospital in Taichung, Taiwan, argued that it is necessary to go beyond smoking history to identify patients at risk and shared an alternative model for screening.
Currently, detection of lung cancer is performed using low-dose CT scans in high-risk people: smokers or people who stopped smoking less than 15 years ago, who have smoked at least one pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years old. The guideline is that the exam be done every one or two years, from 50 to 55 years old.
Study shows why most smokers don’t get lung cancer
“Screening is not recommended for the general population because the costs are considered to outweigh the benefits, but perhaps it is time to think about a new strategy for lung cancer screening. The number of non-smokers diagnosed with lung cancer has been growing, as well as those who have never had direct contact with smokers”, says oncologist Carlos Gil Ferreira, president of Instituto Oncoclínicas.
Lung cancer in never-smokers is a growing global threat, especially in East Asia. In Taiwan, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality, with 53% never smoking. With the aim of developing an effective strategy to identify high-risk individuals to be screened among those who have never smoked, a national screening campaign with low-dose computed tomography was carried out for this population called TALENT (in Portuguese, Programa Nacional de Trastremento de Câncer de Lung in Taiwan).
The result of the study, presented in 2020, shows that although the participants are not smokers they had one or more of the following risks:
- Family history of third-degree lung cancer
- Passive smoke exposure
- Tuberculosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Cooking Index score ≥ 110 (measured by the number of times per week cooking, including frying, sautéing, or frying multiplied by the number of years spent cooking)
- cooking without ventilation
A total of 12,011 subjects were enrolled. Half of the participants had a family history of lung cancer.
“It is important to establish a strategy to reduce lung cancer mortality. Current screening guidelines and eligibility criteria can miss more than 30% to 50% even in smokers. We also need to identify high-risk non-smokers and offer screening for this population,” says Carlos Gil.
#Family #history #impacts #lung #cancer #risk #nonsmokers