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VIDEO: Lung cancer screening shows potential to reduce deaths

SAN DIEGO — Gregory Kane, MD, chair of the department of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, discussed the importance of lung cancer screening and how to identify a patient who is eligible for screening at the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women, he said. Clinicians have the opportunity to reduce lung cancer mortality among patients by implementing appropriate screening methods, as the cure rate of cancerous tumors through surgery exceeds 92%, he added.

Kane also noted pitfalls to be aware of in the screening process, including that up to 25% of patients screened will have between one and six nodules with more than 90% of identified nodules proving to be benign.

“This is an exciting new era to be treating patients with lung cancer,” he said. “It’s exciting because it holds the promise to improve the number of people that we can cure. On the other end of the spectrum, for cancers that we do identify that may not be cured surgically, we have a plethora of new and exciting therapies that can help extend the lives of our patients who may have more advanced stage or metastatic disease. This is really a time of revolution for us in the treatment of lung cancer, it’s long overdue and we’re excited that this time has arrived.”