What an Early Lung Cancer Diagnosis Means for You

Lung cancer, the leading cause of all cancer deaths, is scary because it grows quietly and is sometimes only discovered when you have an X-ray or CT scan for an unrelated issue.

Early detection can expand your doctor’s toolkit of options. If it isn’t diagnosed until symptoms appear, the focus pivots to managing the disease and keeping you comfortable for as long as possible.

To better understand lung cancer, let’s look at how the disease progresses through four stages. During the first two stages, the tumor is more confined within the lung, which makes it more vulnerable to treatment. If left unchecked, the disease progresses to the final two stages as it leaves the lungs and spreads to other parts of the body. Usually this is when obvious symptoms appear. These include:

• Coughing
• Shortness of breath
• Fatigue
• Unexplained weight loss

About 10 percent to 20 percent of lung cancers are diagnosed in people who have never smoked. If you fall into that category and have these lingering symptoms, you should see a doctor.

Better Success if Caught Early

In about 30 percent of cases, an early diagnosis can significantly increase treatment options and offer greater hope for a cure. The key difference is that your doctor may have the option of surgically removing the tumor during the early stages.

There is still a range of factors that could come into play, including the size of the tumor, its location and the type of tumor – some are more aggressive than others. Your own health, underlying conditions and social support network will also play a role. Early-stage treatments (including surgery and chemotherapy) can be difficult on the body.

The ideal treatment begins with surgery to remove the tumor. There are several surgical possibilities, depending on the size of the tumor and where it is in your lungs, which are divided into lobes (three on the right and two on the left).

These surgeries can vary significantly. On the lower end, your surgeon may be able to remove the tumor and some surrounding healthy tissue from a small section of the lung. In more extreme cases, your surgeon may remove an entire lung.

Even if surgery is able to remove the tumor, your care plan will also include other treatments, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy or targeted therapy.

Why Screenings Are So Important

Since we know that early stage lung cancers cause no symptoms, it is important that you follow screening guidelines if you are at elevated risk.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual screenings for people with a heavy smoking history. This includes anyone between the ages of 50 and 80, with a 20-pack-year history. A pack-year is defined as smoking one pack a day for a year. For example, you can reach a 20-pack-year history by smoking a pack a day for 20 years, or two packs a day for 10 years, etc. Even if you have quit smoking, these guidelines apply for 15 years after you stop.

Screening is done by a “low-dose CT scan” (LDCT). It is a quick and painless process in which a machine uses X-rays to produce a detailed, three-dimensional image of your lungs.

If you are a current or former smoker, it’s important you share this information with your primary care doctor, so that you can discuss your risks and screening options.

Keep in mind that lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths. It results in more deaths than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined.

This content is not AI generated.