Lung Cancerearly Detection And Screening - Chapter 5 Lung Cancer Whos At Risk: Cancer

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Lung cancer-Early detection and screening

Because most people have no early symptoms, it is difficult to detect lung cancer before it has spread. However, a small number of people may note early symptoms, including:

• a cough that doesn't go away

• chest pain, made worse by deep breathing

• hoarseness

• loss of appetite or loss of weight

• bloody or rust-colored sputum (phlegm)

• shortness of breath

• fever

• frequent infections like bronchitis or pneumonia

• a new onset of wheezing

Unfortunately, there are no routine screening tests recommended for early detection of lung cancer at this time. The value of a screening test is based on its ability to reduce deaths from a disease, and on these grounds, screening tests for lung cancer have not been found effective. In the past, researchers hoped that routine chest x-rays and sputum analysis could improve outcomes. After careful scientific evaluation, neither test proved to actually reduce lung cancer deaths.

Researchers are developing new screening tests that may have greater success. One approach is to screen for lung cancer by identifying the changes in DNA that indicate early cancers. Another approach may be to develop gene therapies that repair or replace the mutated genes that lead to lung cancer before cancer develops.

Routine CT scanning for lung cancer increases the detection of smaller cancers but this has not been shown to reduce the risk of advanced lung cancer or death rates. Although the new test is being advertised aggressively by some radiologists, it is still under investigation.

Last updated:	May 01, 2008