Screening & Early Detection

Detecting lung cancer early, when it is easiest to treat, can save lives.

Currently, only 16% of lung cancers are diagnosed while the tumor is still localized – that is, in its earliest stages of growth. A major challenge is that most people with lung cancer only have symptoms when they are in later stages of disease. In fact, it does happen sometimes among those who are diagnosed early that their lung cancer was discovered during treatment for an unrelated medical issue.

Screening for cancer means checking for cancer before there are any symptoms. Examples of commonly used screening tests for cancer are mammograms for breast cancer, colonoscopies for colon cancer, and the Pap test and HPV tests for cervical cancer. There is not yet a comparable reliable and broadly available screening test for lung cancer that can catch the disease early. Chest X-rays are not recommended for screening because they often miss early-stage lung cancers and have not resulted in decreased mortality. Likewise for sputum cytology, a test that checks for abnormal cells in sputum. There is ongoing research toward developing such a reliable and broadly available lung cancer screening test that can be used for all.