Can CT Scans Prevent Lung Cancer Deaths?
While survival rates for some of the most common types of cancer have been on the rise, the percentage of lung cancer patients who survive for five years after their diagnosis is still quite low. In fact, lung cancer has been the number one cause of cancer deaths in the United States for many years. But a new study shows that one tool may have the potential to change these statistics and drastically alter the way lung cancer is diagnosed and treated in the United States. There will be 173,000 people diagnosed with lung cancer this year, and 164,000 who have lived with the disease will die from it, making the survival rate of lung cancer patients about 5 percent, according to Dr. Claudia Henschke, lead study author and chief of the chest imaging division at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The difficulty in lung cancer treatment lies in the fact that lung cancer often causes no symptoms until it has developed into a late-stage of the disease. At this point, the cancer
