Doctors and patients asked to rethink approach to lung cancer diagnosis

Experts of leading medical organizations and patients have suggested that lung cancer should be diagnosed using computer tomography during medical check-ups. They sent such proposals to the Ministry of Health and the State Duma (available at the disposal of Izvestiya).

Infusion agent: innovative contrast will replace CT with ultrasound

How Russia is creating a drug superior to its Western counterparts

Now, the authors of the letter reminded, there is no CT scan among compulsory examinations in determining the disease, but there are radiography and fluorography. These methods, according to them, do not allow to detect small foci of the tumor.

"Lung cancer is one of the main causes of mortality in cancer patients. Five-year survival rate directly depends on the stage of the disease. So, at the initial stage it reaches more than 80%, while at the fourth stage - 6%," the letter says.

It is noted that now in about 70% of patients the disease is detected at the third stage, when radical methods of treatment are no longer applicable.

"Chest radiography has insufficient informativeness for the first and second stages and average informativeness for the third. With the help of this method it is possible to effectively diagnose only the fourth, final stage of lung cancer, when it is already difficult to help the patient," Deputy Medical Director of AlfaStrakhovanie-OMC told Izvestia Sergey Shkitin.

The authors of the letter argue the effectiveness of diagnosing lung cancer with CT scan, referring to the data of the Center for Expertise and Quality Control of Medical Care of the Ministry of Health. According to this information, this approach will increase the detectability of the disease and reduce the number of deaths from it.

The Russian healthcare infrastructure is ready for the widespread introduction of such screening, the authors of the letter claim.

Read more in an exclusive Izvestia article:

Listening to our breath: doctors ask to make CT scan mandatory for lung cancer