askjoel

i quit for the (hopefully ) last time with your site 2 years ago. i have an option of getting a lung scan at a local hospital. what do you know about these and do you know if they are saving lives?

thank you. i am a nurse and recommend your site to all patients i see who report that they smoke.

merry

Hello Merry:

We have a string at the Freedom website that has been discussing these scans for the past few years. Here is a link to that string:

Spiral or Helical Lung CT Scan

You may want to read all of the articles attached there. There is no clear cut consensus at this point in time on whether or not these tests are worth the expense or potential risks that go with finding false negative results. There are actually large scale studies going on now, with some 50,000 participants being evaluated. Here is a link to information about that ongoing study. http://www.cancer.gov/nlst/what-is-nlst.

I think it will be a number of years before they come up with specific recommendations about the safety and efficacy of these tests as a standard screening device for lung cancer.

Joel

Important Announcement The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
askjoel	[email protected]