Lung cancer screening “decision aid”: Summary Screening Eligibility Criteria: If you are 1. a current smoker or 2. an ex-smoker who has quit within the past fifteen years and 3. You have smoked a total of thirty pack/years or more. (For example, smoked an average of two packs a day for fifteen years or one …
Category Archives: Should I be screened for lung cancer?
Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: False Positives
Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: False Positives The basic problem in lung cancer screening is that cancers and benign nodules look the same. With some exceptions, a radiologist cannot tell a cancer from a benign nodule just by looking at them. A false positive test is a positive test report in a patient who …
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Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment
Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: Overdiagnosis What is cancer overdiagnosis? William Black defines an overdiagnosed cancer as one which “will never cause symptoms or kill”. This idea is hard for most people to grasp. Popular understanding is that lung cancer is a relentless disease that will rapidly kill unless it is treated. If …
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Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: False Positives
Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: False Positives The basic problem in lung cancer screening is that cancers and benign nodules look the same. With some exceptions, a radiologist cannot tell a cancer from a benign nodule just by looking at them. A false positive test is a positive test report in a patient who …
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Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: False Negatives
Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: False Negatives A false negative exam occurs when a person has a lung cancer, but the CT scan fails to report a positive test result. Are there false negatives in CT lung cancer screening? Yes. False negative screening tests are possible if the lung cancer is very small …
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Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: “License to Smoke”
Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: “License to Smoke” Multiple prospective and retrospective research studies have looked at the question of whether people who smoke decide not to quit smoking, because CT screening will prevent them from dying from lung cancer. There is general agreement that there is no evidence that quit rates are lower …
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Potential complications of lung cancer screening: Expense
Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: Expense Is CT screening expensive? It depends on your medical insurance coverage. If you have insurance coverage with Medicare, Medicaid or a private company and meet Medicare eligibility requirements, -age between 55-80 – smoked 30 or more pack/years. (For example one pack/day for 30 years or 2 packs/day for …
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Potential complications of lung cancer screening: Inconvenience
Potential complications of Lung Cancer Screening: Inconvenience The first step in getting a screening CT scan is to get a prescription from your healthcare primary provider (doctor, nurse practitioner or physician assistant). Medicare requires that you review a decision aid document or other media and then discuss potential benefits and risks of screening with your …
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Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: Discomfort
Potential Complications of Lung Cancer Screening: Discomfort: Is a CT scan for lung cancer screening uncomfortable? No. When you get to the clinic or hospital where the CT scan will be done, you will have to register and provide medical insurance information. When you are taken to the CT scanning room, You will not …
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What is “screening” in medicine?
What is “screening” in medicine? Screening is based upon the simple idea that results of treatment of a disease are better – i.e. lower chance of death, faster recovery, fewer complications, less disability, less expense – when disease has been diagnosed at an early stage, before it has caused permanent damage. There are many ways to …