Screening program cuts lung cancer death rate

A SCREENING system using low-dose computed tomography, or LDCT, can improve early detection of lung cancer by 90 percent and reduce the death rate by 20 percent, local medical experts said yesterday.

The nation’s first large-scale LDCT screening program, launched by Shanghai Chest Hospital six years ago, has studied around 30,000 residents in Xuhui District and provided screening for some 8,000 at high risk.

The detection of lung cancer was 1.5 percent and 94.1 percent were in the early stage. “Only 20 percent of patients visiting hospitals after having symptoms are in the early stage,” said leading researcher Dr Han Baohui. “All patients in the early stage detected in the program have survived for five years, a medical term meaning clinical recovery.”

For those detected with lung cancer at a later stage, the five-year survival rate is just 15 percent.

Lung cancer is the top cancer killer in the world. China has the largest number of patients with incidence growing by 400 percent in the past 30 years. Doctors said the program effectively indicated that early LDCT screening can detect lung cancer in time and help reduce patients’ mortality.

“Considering Chinese patients’ spectrum of disease, we add people between 45 and 50 into the program and include criteria targeting females, who have exposure to passive smoking and kitchen smoke when screening high-risk people to have a wider coverage,” Han said. “Compared with Western countries, the high-risk population in China is not restricted to smokers. The incidence of women with lung cancer has been rising.”

Doctors said they launched a second round of the program last year, and artificial intelligence technology and new medical technologies have been included to reduce the workload of doctors, improve efficiency and enhance accuracy. “AI plays an important role in early-stage screening, as computers can help find those with high-risk factors and screen out suspicious lesions for doctors to do further checks,” Han revealed.