Greenwich Hospital is now offering longtime smokers access to a new lung cancer screening program that offers low-dose computerized tomography (CT) scans designed to significantly increase five-year survival rates.
According to the hospital, only 16% of lung cancers are diagnosed early when the five-year survival rate is 56%. Survival drops to 6% among the 47% of cases caught at a later stage when the disease has spread.
The newly introduced CT scan procedure combines a series of X-ray images taken from different angles around the body to create cross-sectional images that provide more-detailed information than a traditional X-ray, the hospital stated, noting that in one clinical trial high-risk patients who had a low-dose CT scan saw a 20% reduction in mortality compared to those who had a chest X-ray.
The lung cancer screening program is open to individuals who are between 50 – 77 years old, smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 or more years and are currently smoking or have quit in the last 15 years. Eligible patients are screened yearly or more frequently if a scan reveals a suspicious nodule. Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance cover the low-dose CT scan.
“Only an estimated 5% of those eligible nationwide are getting screened,” said Emily Kopas, coordinator of the Lung Cancer Screening Program at the Smilow Cancer Hospital Care Center in Greenwich. The team includes pulmonologists, chest radiologists, thoracic surgeons, thoracic oncologists, smoking cessation specialists and nurse practitioners.
