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Detecting lung cancer early before appearance of symptoms can greatly reduce chances of death
The U.S. research shows: among 333 people at high risk of lung cancer who are screened with LDCT, one person will avoid death because of early detection of lung cancer. Therefore, if you are at high risk of lung cancer, LDCT screening can help detect lung cancer early before any symptoms and improve chances of cure.
The screening results seems to be cancer, but further examination confirms that it is not lung cancer, such condition is called a false alarm. False alarm is common, about 3 to 4 people out of every 10 people screened will have a false alarm. People who have a false alarm will require further examination (such as having one more or multiple scans or biopsies) within 1 to 2 years to determine if they have lung cancer. People may experience excessive nervousness or psychological stress when waiting for further examinations.
In certain circumstances, lung cancer will not fatally harm the patient even if it is not found. However, lung cancer screening findings could lead to treatment for some people (about 1 to 2 out of 10 people diagnosed with lung cancer) who do not really need treatment.
Although lung cancer screening utilizes low-dose CT scans, people are still at risk of radiation exposure. If the screening result is positive, it is usually necessary to undergo further scans that will expose to higher doses of radiation. The figure below shows the amount of radiation from LDCT screening compared with other medical tests and the environment of daily life.
Lung cancer screening can find other health issues that are not lung cancer, such as heart diseases or thickened tissue in the lungs from scarring, which causes more health care costs.