Lung Cancer Screening Importance & Eligibility in Elizabethtown, KY

Baptist Health Hardin: Lung Cancer Screening Importance & Eligibility

The purpose of lung cancer screenings is to detect lung cancer in its earliest stages. Learn more about lung cancer tests and eligibility from Baptist Health.

Lung Cancer Screening Importance & Eligibility in Elizabethtown, KY HealthTalks Transcript

Transcript:

Aaron Mulhall, MD, Pulmonary Disease:
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. In the state of Kentucky, we have the highest rate of lung cancer cases and the highest rate of lung cancer deaths in the entire U.S. There’s a specific group of patients eligible for lung cancer screening, it includes patients between the ages of 50 and 80, patients who have quit smoking in the last 15 years, and patients who have smoked a minimum of 20-pack years in their life. The problem with lung cancer is that lung cancer doesn’t become symptomatic until it’s spread and, at that point, it’s not curable. The advantage of having this screening test done is if you do develop a lung cancer, it’ll be caught early, and we can cure it.

The process for a low-dose chest CT is you lay down on the CAT scan table and you go in and out of the CAT scan machine. It only lasts a couple of minutes. It’s noninvasive, so there’s no needle sticks, no IVs, no medications. It’s a relatively simple and risk-free test. The benefits of having lung cancer screening done at Baptist Health Hardin is that if there is a lung cancer detected early, we can treat it with a multidisciplinary approach. What that means is we have the lung doctors, as well as the oncologist, the thoracic surgeon, and radiation oncologists who come together to review the case and come up with the best treatment plan possible.

Next Steps and Useful Resources:

Find a Provider Near You
Take a Free Lung Cancer Health Risk Assessment
Importance of Lung Cancer Screening
How to Help Prevent Lung Cancer by Reducing Your Risk