Can I Get Checked for Lung Ca... Health Article

Currently, screening tests are not recommended to find lung cancer in people who don’t have symptoms. Healthcare experts don’t recommend screening tests when they have not shown that they can find cancers earlier than when symptoms appear.

There are three common ways that doctors screen for lung cancer.

• Sputum cytology test

• Chest X-rays

• CT scans

These are described below.

Sputum cytology test. For this test, you use a special jar to collect a sample of the mucus that you cough up and take it to your doctor. Then, it’s checked for cancer cells under a microscope. Not all types of lung cancer will show cancer cells in the sputum.

Chest X-ray. This imaging test produces a picture of the organs within the chest. It gives a 2-dimensional picture of the lungs.

Spiral computed tomography scan. This test is called a CT scan for short. It uses X-rays to scan the whole chest. To have the test, you lie still on a table as it passes through the center of the CT scanner. It gives a picture of what your lungs look like. A CT scan is painless and noninvasive, and requires no special preparation. You may be asked to hold your breath one or more times during the scan.

Unfortunately, none of these is completely accurate at finding lung cancer. They don’t always find cancer in its early stages when it is easiest to treat. Only about 15% of lung cancers are found in the early stage. Still, if you have more than one risk, you should talk with your doctor about whether you should take such tests. This is especially true if you smoke or used to smoke.

So far, neither an X-ray nor a CT scan has been shown to lower a person’s chance of dying from lung cancer. The good news is that clinical trials are now taking place to test and improve early-detection methods. Right now there is a large government clinical trial. It was launched by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and is called the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). In the NLST, smokers or former smokers are getting either spiral CT scans or chest X-rays. The goal is to see if one is better than the other at finding lung cancer in its early stages. This trial includes nearly 50,000 people. It will last for 8 years, ending in 2012.