News
As this Business Week/Health Day News story says, very few lung cancers are found early.
But, for those which are found early, the American Lung Association’s chief medical officer says the benefits of quitting smoking are “quite dramatic. I don’t think anyone would have expected such a dramatic difference. It’s incredible…”
Smokers find it a challenge to quit at any point but this is a powerful incentive to do so.
Any step a patient can take to double the odds of surviving should get some takers.
In addition to that incentive, although this story does not mention them, there now are medications and other tools which make the transition from smoker to non-smoker more manageable.
The story stresses that this applies to early cancers. Only 20% of lung cancer is diagnosed early.
“Quitting smoking after a diagnosis of early stage lung cancer doubles the odds that a patient will live another five years, a new study finds.
“The results are quite dramatic. I don’t think anybody would have expected such a dramatic difference. It’s incredible,” said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association. “The important caveat is that this is early lung cancer.” (Emphasis added)
“Early stage lung malignancies can have cure rates of 50 percent to 60 percent, Edelman noted. The tragedy is that very few lung cancers (perhaps 20 percent, the authors stated) are diagnosed at this early stage. (Emphasis added)
“The new findings are published in the Jan. 21 online edition of BMJ.”
Source: Business Week, January 22, 2010
Citation: BMJ 2010;340:b5569
