According to KWF, about 10,000 people die of lung cancer in the Netherlands every year. 86 percent of everyone with lung cancer gets it from smoking. To bring this number down, research will be conducted in heavy smokers starting this week. This concerns persons who smoke at least 20 cigarettes per day for a period of 35 years. They must also be between 60 and 79 years old.
“The persons who want to participate in the screening will receive a CT scan and a blood test if they want,” explains radiologist Alexander Schmitz of the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital to Editie NL. If these people are screened earlier, the chance that lung cancer will be detected at an early stage is high.
“There have been previous studies on lung screening and we have already seen that with the help of a CT scan we are able to find lung tumors at an earlier stage. Lung tumors only give symptoms very late and then the disease has often already spread and very poor survival rate.”
80 percent of patients now die within 3 to 5 years. Screening for lung cancer improves the survival rate by 60 percent with early detection. And in the very earliest stage even by 80 or 90 percent. “We can reduce dying from lung cancer by up to 26 percent with screening. Early screening pays off and works.”
It may not only save lives, it also saves a lot of healthcare costs. “Now we often discover the cancer in stage four, which is the last stage. Treatments that we then have to do cost about 50,000 to 100,000 euros per patient.” These are, for example, costs for chemotherapy. “In the end, life expectancy remains poor. With earlier detection, we can apply simpler therapy and that costs less, and the chance of survival is also a lot better.”
Population survey
There is national screening for three types of cancer. For example, there is a population screening for breast cancer, colon cancer and cervical cancer. Should more diseases be added to this list?
Health economist Marcel Canoy thinks it doesn’t always make sense. “In principle, nothing applies to screenings other than that other treatments are given. It must be proven that the benefits outweigh the costs,” he says to Editie NL. In addition, according to him, it can also cause people to become unnecessarily worried, which in turn entails psychological costs. “Preventive screening is not always the holy grail. In a number of cases it is, for example from breast cancer research, we know that it is very effective.
Schmitz also does not think it makes sense to screen for all diseases. “You have to be very critical of that, you first have to see if it makes sense. The most important question is: will the chance of survival increase?” He is convinced that the lung cancer research does make sense. “In America they have been doing it for some time and now the EU is also advising to implement it.”
Anyone wishing to participate in the study can register here. There are already long waiting lists.