By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – November is Lung Cancer awareness month, and a lung cancer leading Dr. is trying to eliminate the stigma when it comes to being diagnosed with lung cancer.
According to Dr. Debra Dyer, chair of the American College of Radiology Lung Cancer Screening Steering Committee, lung cancer kills more people than breast, colon, and prostate cancer combined.
“It is often, not always related to smoking history. And so what we are trying to do with November as lung cancer awareness month is to bring it to the forefront and have the opportunity to talk about how important it is to get screened.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 131,880 people die from lung cancer each year.
“The very important message that we want to get out is that there is a screening tool – there is a lung cancer screening CT that patients can get if their eligible,” Dr. Dyer told WJBC’s, Scott Miller. “Those eligibility requirements recently were changed. It used to be that people had to be at least age 55 and have smoked for 30 pack-years; that’s a pack a day for 30-years.
But, we have new recommendations from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force that drops the age to 50 and the pack-years to 20. So if somebody smoked two packs a day for 10-years, that’s 20 pack years.”
Dr. Dyer added that anyone could get lung cancer, and not just those who smoke. However, about 80% of people who get lung cancer have a smoking history.
The screening is free for those who have insurance.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
