SAN ANTONIO — When it comes to cancer being screened is a must, especially for more aggressive cancers. In today's Healthy SA, UT Health San Antonio helps us find out that is even more important when it comes to lung cancer.
Lung cancer can be difficult to diagnose because symptoms don't typically appear until the later stages. That is why getting screened when it is your time is a must.
"It became very clear many decades ago that we needed to be more proactive and actually try to find these cancers before they became symptomatic," said Dr. Daniel DeArmond, an associate professor and chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at UT Health San Antonio.
The 2022 "State of Lung Cancer" report shows that only 5.8% of eligible Americans have been screened for lung cancer. Some states have screening rates as low as just 1%. The American Lung Association says even though lung cancer screening numbers are very low, the five-year survival rate is now 25 percent, up from 21 percent in 2018.
"Sometimes there's a stigma associated with machismo that people, men feel invincible and they perhaps don't want to confront these these sorts of fears about aging and mortality," said Dr. Charles Fries, an associate professor of plastic surgery at UT Health San Antonio and also serves as the division chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Some of the symptoms of advanced lung cancer is coughing that gets worse or doesn't go away, chest pain, shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing up blood, feeling very tired all the time and weight loss with no known cause.
So when should you be screened?
Dr. DeArmond said, "It's people between the age of 50 and 80 who are either current smokers or quit less than 15 years prior to the present time and who have smoked 20 the equivalent of a 20 pack year smoking history." Dr. Fries added, "A screening test is perfect to identify it and then treat somebody at a stage where the condition could be completely curable versus waiting for symptoms to manifest."
For more information or to find a primary care provider, contact UT Health San Antonio Primary Care.