Popular Science: Why Early Screening for Lung Cancer is Promoted

Lung cancer is divided into non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer according to cell type. There are three main subtypes of non-small cell lung cancer: adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. Treatment and prognosis vary depending on the type.

Why should we distinguish between non-small cells and small cells?

This is because if pathology (such as bronchoscopy, sputum cytology, needle biopsy, etc.) confirms that it is small cell carcinoma, then no matter how small the lesion is, whether it is 10 cm or 2 cm Even if it is 1 mm, there is no indication for surgery.

But for non-small cells, the first choice is definitely surgical resection. That is to say, only non-small cell lung cancer has indications for surgery.

Only early- to mid-stage cancers have indications for surgery

In the diagnosis of tumors, in addition to the patient’s cell type, we also need to perform an overall systemic staging for him. Only in the early and middle stages can there be indications for surgery. Generally, patients with advanced lung cancer have no indications for surgery, because even if they undergo such a relatively invasive surgery, it will not help their survival.

So patients with mid-to-late stage lung cancer generally choose effective radiotherapy or chemotherapy. This is why early screening for lung cancer is a major prerequisite.

What is the most effective way to detect early lung cancer?

Only early-stage and mid-stage lung cancer have indications for surgery, so how can we detect early-stage lung cancer lesions (not yet developed to mid-late stage) at the earliest possible time? Then we must rely on "multi-slice low-dose spiral CT".

It is now popular internationally to use low-dose spiral CT for early lung cancer screening. For screening early-stage lung cancer, we generally use 64-slice low-dose spiral CT.

If lung cancer is diagnosed, is it a death sentence?

Early detection of lung cancer greatly improves survival rate. Being diagnosed with lung cancer is definitely not a death sentence.

First of all, we need to clarify a concept, that is, how do we determine whether the treatment of this tumor patient is successful? The indicators are the 5-year survival rate and the 10-year survival rate.

If the 5-year survival rate and the 10-year survival rate reach a certain percentage, it can be said that the treatment is successful. As far as lung cancer is concerned, whether it is stage 1 (early stage) or stage 4 (late stage), the overall survival rate is only 12-15%.

The 5-year survival rate of early-stage lung cancer can reach more than 80%. Furthermore, if we detect lung cancer through early screening and perform surgical resection within one month, the 5-year survival rate can exceed 90%.

Comparing the 5-year survival rate of 90% with the 5-year survival rate of 12% mentioned earlier, this improvement is obvious. It can be seen from this that early lung cancer screening and early diagnosis and early treatment can bring great benefits to patients!

In addition, tumors are like colds. There is no concept of cure. We can only say that they can achieve a curative effect. Most of the patients who come to our hospital for surgical resection and are still undergoing reexamination more than 10 years ago are patients with early-stage lung cancer.

Institutional authoritative inspection, post-examination professional understanding consultation

In addition to choosing a national professional and authoritative hospital for physical examination, who will interpret your physical examination report is also very important!

When we get the diagnosis results, we will find that there are many small nodules in the lungs. What are these nodules? What should be done? Questions like this require a professional team to explain to you.

The first thing to rule out is whether it is a malignant tumor. Because the detected lesions are very small, sometimes it is not possible to determine what they are based on their shape. Therefore, based on its size and shape, we will give suggestions for the next step. Nodules detected with different properties and sizes have different follow-up suggestions.