70% of lung cancer patients are detected late, who is at risk?

In Vietnam, lung cancer ranks second after liver cancer, with an estimated 23,000 new cases and nearly 21,000 deaths each year. It is worth noting that currently only about 30% of patients are detected at an early stage, 70% go to the hospital when they are in the final stage.

Lung cancer develops silently and is easily confused with common respiratory diseases - Illustration: NGUYEN HIEN

Who is at risk for lung cancer?

Symptoms of early stage lung cancer are often unclear, making it easy for patients to confuse it with common respiratory diseases. So who is at risk and when should they be screened?

Dr. Nguyen Van Loi, deputy head of the thoracic surgery department, K Hospital (Tan Trieu, Hanoi) said that every year, thousands of patients are diagnosed with lung cancer. However, most are often detected at a late stage, with over 70% of the disease having progressed or metastasized.

"The symptoms of lung cancer in the early stages are often quite vague, easily confused with common respiratory symptoms such as cough, wheezing, hoarseness...

Therefore, early detection of lung cancer in healthy people at high risk of the disease is very necessary. The earlier lung cancer is detected, the higher the chance of cure," said Dr. Loi.

According to Dr. Loi, according to the recommendations of the US CDC, there are 10 groups of people who need to be screened for lung cancer periodically. Among them, people with a history of smoking and family members who have had the disease are at high risk and need to be screened early.

In addition, people whose occupations involve exposure to dust, smoke (cooking smoke, cigarette smoke, incense smoke, asbestos), radiation; people with other cancers or chronic lung diseases (COPD, tuberculosis...) are also at risk.

Early detection, effective treatment

Mr. Nguyen Ba Tinh, head of the social work department at K Hospital, shared that in the past, breast cancer had a similar rate of late-onset patients as lung cancer does today. However, thanks to communication campaigns and breast cancer screening, 70% of patients are now detected at an early stage.

For lung cancer, if detected, diagnosed and treated early, the patient survival rate after 5 years is up to over 80%.

However, when lung cancer is detected in the late stages, the 5-year survival rate is less than 5% and treatment costs are expensive.

"When lung cancer is detected at an early stage, most patients can undergo minimally invasive surgical methods such as endoscopic surgery or robotic surgery, which will result in higher treatment efficiency and prolong the patient's healthy life," Mr. Tinh informed.

Mr. Tinh added that recently, K Hospital has also recorded many cases of young people with lung cancer.

"Therefore, when there are signs such as prolonged cough, chest pain, prolonged hoarseness, wheezing, difficulty breathing, unusual weight loss, you need to go to a medical facility for examination. Especially those at risk such as smokers, have relatives with the disease...", Mr. Tinh advised.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/70-benh-nhan-ung-thu-phoi-phat-hien-muon-ai-co-nguy-co-20241218163023511.htm