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Nov 28 10 7:48 AM
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An American study offers hope to the 80 per cent of UK sufferers who are beyond help because the disease is diagnosed too late
By Nina Lakhani
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Thousands of lives could be saved by screening for early signs of lung cancer, a groundbreaking new study has found. Deaths from the disease fell by 20 per cent among former or current smokers who were checked with CT scans, according to the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) study of more than 50,000 people..
With more than 1.3 million new cases worldwide every year, lung cancer is Britain's biggest cancer killer and 80 per cent of patients die within a year of being diagnosed. Smoking is the biggest risk factor, but around 4,000 new patients every year have never smoked a cigarette in their lives, according to Cancer Research UK; as many as half of new cases are former smokers. The number and rapidity of patient deaths is largely due to late diagnosis, as symptoms usually appear only after it is too late for surgery...
Currently, only 7 per cent of lung cancer patients in the UK are alive after five years (the vast majority, –80 per cent – are beyond curative surgery by the time they see a specialist). This compares with survival rates of 82 per cent for breast and 76 per cent for prostate cancer. While a small pea-sized lump in the breast can be detected through vigilant self-examination, a lung tumour must be 50 times as big before any symptoms such as a persistent cough appear.
More here: http://www.independent.co...er-patients-2145636.html
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