Quick Facts about Lung Cancer Screening (LCS)

What is LCS?

LCS involves performing an annual low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scan of the lungs in carefully selected patients to identify spots in the lung that could be cancer.

See the side-bar for who should be screened.

What happends during a LDCT?

The LDCT scan is a quick (minutes) and painless scan of the lungs. Think of it as many x-rays stacked up on top of each other, starting with pictures of the higher part of your chest and ending with the lower part of your chest.

The scan is done in an open machine.

There is no need for contrast (dye).

What is found during a LDCT?

Sometimes, the results are entirely normal.

Other times, the results maybe definitively abnormal or simply need follow up to decide further.

Lung cancer can show up as a mass (>3cm in size) or sometimes a nodule (<3cm in size). Both are commonly called 'spots' on the lung.

Also, plaque in the arteries of the heart and other abnormalities of large blood vessels in the chest may be identified (incidental findings) or even 'spots' in the kidneys. It just depends.

Why do LCS?

Lung cancer is the #1 cancer killer in both men and women. Performing LCS has been showing to save lives, and not just from catching cancer.

LDCT screening reduced the chance of dying from lung cancer by 20%, compared to screening with chest x-ray.

(National Lung Screening Trial - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21714641/)

How do LCS rates compare to other cancer screenings?

The average rate for LCS in the US is just 5%!!!

For comparison here are the average rates of other cancer screenings in the US.

Breast cancer - 67%.
Colon cancer - 59%.
Cervical cancer - 87%.

(www.cancer.org)

How does Nevada compare in LCS versus other states in the U.S.?

We are at 1% LCS rates in Nevada which is last in the U.S.

(State Variation in Low-Dose Computed Tomography Scanning for Lung Cancer Screening in the United States - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33176362/)