DLNews - Guest Column by Harold Wimmer

If You Smoked or Still Do This 60-Second Screening Could Save Your Life
By Harold Wimmer, President and CEO of the American Lung Association

Denise Lee smoked up to two packs a day for 40 years, but when she quit at 54, Denise made one more lifesaving decision.

After seeing an American Lung Association billboard that read "If you smoked, this lung cancer screening could save your life," Denise scheduled a low-dose CT scan. The next day, her results came back: a mass was detected, which they later confirmed was lung cancer.

When she scheduled the scan, Denise had yet to develop a single symptom -- and catching her lung cancer that early meant she had multiple treatments available. It's been eight years since, and Denise remains cancer-free.

Lung cancer screening is a simple, quick, painless and non-invasive procedure. A low-dose CT scan takes less than a minute and, as Denise knows, it could save your life. I've dedicated my life to advocating for healthy lungs, starting as a regional program director of the American Lung Association all the way to my current position as president and CEO. As such, I want anyone and everyone -- especially those who've smoked -- to know how easy and effective a screening is.

While we continue to make significant strides, lung cancer remains the top cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. -- yet about only one quarter of lung cancer cases are caught early, when five-year survival rates are over 60%.

Lung cancer often grows silently without any symptoms, which is precisely why early detection is so important and can lead to more effective treatment. But over 80% of high-risk current and former smokers haven't been scanned.

Screenings are recommended for high-risk individuals -- that includes current smokers, those who quit within the last 15 years, or ex-smokers between the ages of 50 and 80 who smoked a pack a day for 20 years (known as '20 pack years') or the equivalent, such as two packs a day for 10 years.

With recent medical advances, lung cancer screenings can now be conducted using low-dose CT scans. Patients simply lie down on a table while an open imaging machine takes pictures to examine lung health. Less than a minute long, the screening is completely painless, and most private insurance plans cover the test, as does Medicare.

Of course, no one wants to hear that they may have lung cancer. But the head start afforded by a screening can make all the difference and open the door to more treatment options -- from surgery to chemotherapy to newer advances like targeted therapy and immunotherapy. Early detection has turned lung cancer from a terminal diagnosis into an eminently treatable condition.

In the past 10 years, these scans have saved 80,000 years of life -- that's nearly thirty-million more days spent with loved ones and friends. If every high-risk individual had been screened for lung cancer between 2013 and 2020, that number could have been more than six times higher — half a million years of life saved.

If you think you might be at risk, it's now easier than ever to find out. Visit SavedByTheScan.org and take a brief quiz to find out whether you're eligible for a low-dose CT scan. One in five people who took the quiz found out they were at high risk.

I joined the American Lung Association nearly five decades ago. I'm proud to have witnessed the enormous progress we've made against lung cancer. But there’s more work to do and that starts with more people getting scanned.

If your lungs could talk, they'd tell you to talk to your doctor and ask about lung cancer screenings. Taking just a couple minutes to hear them out could save your life.

Editor’s Note / Fact-Check Summary:
This guest column by Harold Wimmer, President and CEO of the American Lung Association, is factually accurate and aligns with current medical and public health guidance. The screening recommendations, survival rates, and insurance coverage details are verified against the latest U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and American Lung Association data.