Lung Screening Program · Conway Medical Center

CMC is detecting lung cancer early in high risk patients utilizing life saving lung screenings that are fast and painless.

Lung screenings save lives

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths — more than breast, prostate, and colon cancer combined. Screening for those at high risk for lung cancer is incredibly important. Most cases occur with no symptoms until its too late so accurate diagnosis of lung cancer in the early stages makes it easier to treat and cure.

The best technology available to you

At Conway Medical Center, we use low-dose CT scans (LDCT) to screen for lung cancer among high-risk people who meet specific criteria. Low-dose CT is currently the only recommended screening test for lung cancer. Chest x-ray and sputum cytology have not been found to have adequate sensitivity or specificity as screening tests.

Also LDCT is a type of CT exam that uses a low dose of radiation to take detailed images of the lungs. It does not use IV or oral contrast. We want to keep your risk low, so we use low-dose CTs that use much less radiation than a standard CT.

Lung screening is free for eligible patients because it is covered by Medicare and most private insurances.

Are you eligible

To be eligible for the screening program, you must meet all of the following criteria:

Age between 55 and 80 years.
Current smoker or former smoker who quit within the past 15 years.
A smoking history of at least 30 pack years or more. (Pack years are calculated by multiplying the average number of cigarette packs smoked per day by the number of years you smoked.)
Have no signs or symptoms of lung cancer.

Note: Insurance plans may have their own age ranges for which they will cover CT lung cancer screening. To verify coverage, please check with your insurance provider.

Your decision

Please tell your doctor your decision about lung cancer screening. If you decide that lung screening is right for you, you can request that your referral for the screening be sent to CMC and you will be contacted to set your appointment.

Regardless of your decision about screening, avoiding cigarettes is the most important thing you can do to lower your chance of dying from many diseases, not just lung cancer. Quitting smoking helps with emphysema and asthma, as well as heart and vascular diseases. To learn about when CMC will hold our next series of smoking cessation classes, click here.

How to prepare for a lung screening

Most low-dose CT exams last 15 minutes but the actual scanning takes about two minutes.

When to Arrive – Please arrive 30 minutes before your appointment so we can properly prepare for your imaging.
Eating & Drinking – You can eat and drink as you normally would before your appointment.
Clothing – Please wear loose, comfortable clothes with no metal like zippers or underwire in bras. Metal can blur the images. We may ask you to change into hospital attire for clearer images.
Valuables – You can keep your things with you during a CT exam, but we suggest you leave your valuables at home so you don’t have to worry about them.
Children – Children are not allowed in the exam room. If you need to bring kids, please bring someone to watch them in the waiting room.

Lung Cancer Screening 101

What is lung cancer?
How to prevent lung cancer

Don’t smoke. Most lung cancers are caused by smoking. If you have already quit smoking, you’ve taken the best step you can to prevent lung cancer. And if you still smoke, the best way to lower your chance of getting or dying from lung cancer is to quit. Your doctor may recommend medicines that can help you quit.

Screening doesn’t prevent lung cancer. It can only find some cancers early, when treatment may be more likely to work.
Key points about lung screening
“Should I have a lung cancer screening test every year?”

This decision is a decision for people at high risk for lung cancer. This includes people age 55 and older who have a heavy smoking history and who have smoked within the last 15 years. In general, screening is more helpful for people who have smoked more and longer, because they are at the highest risk.

Keep in mind:
- Lung cancer screening is a way to find some lung cancers early, when the cancer is more treatable. Screening with CT scans has been shown to lower the risk of dying from lung cancer in some older people who are or were heavy smokers.Screening will miss some lung cancers. And many cancers that are found may still be fatal, even with treatment.
- Screening is done with a CT scan. It uses X-rays, or radiation, to make detailed pictures of your body. Having the test every year means being exposed to this radiation on a regular basis.
- For many people, CT scans show spots on the lungs that aren’t cancer. This leads to more tests to make sure you don’t have cancer. These extra tests can sometimes cause harm or cause a lot of worry.
- Some lung cancers found on CT scans are harmless and would not have caused a problem if they had not been found through screening. But because doctors can’t tell which ones will turn out to be harmless, most will be treated. This means that you may get treatment-including surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy-that you don’t need.
- If you are a smoker, stopping smoking is the best way to lower your chance of getting and dying from lung cancer. Not smoking helps more than lung cancer screening does. To learn about when CMC will hold our next series of smoking cessation classes, click here.
What kind of results can lung screening show?

An abnormal (positive) CT scan can be the first warning sign of lung cancer. And it means you’ll need more tests. These may include more CT scans and invasive testing like a lung biopsy.

In a biopsy, the doctor takes a sample of tissue from inside your lung so it can be looked at under a microscope. A biopsy is the only way to tell if you have lung cancer. If the biopsy finds cancer, you and your doctor will have to decide how or whether to treat it.

The scan can suggest a problem when there is not one. This is called a false-positive result. It’s common to get an abnormal result from this test even when you don’t have cancer. Several things can cause an abnormal result, including small growths(nodules) that would never cause any harm. But without further tests, your doctor can’t tell whether an abnormal finding is cancer, a harmless nodule, or something else.

The scan may also fail to find cancer that is there. This is called a false-negative result.

Your scan may also be normal (negative).
What does a screening not tell you?
Benefits of lung screening

The quality of the evidence about the benefits of lung cancer screening is moderate yet in a majority of studies less people who had annual screenings died from lung cancer than those who did not participate in screenings.

For heavy smokers who qualify for annual screening, having this regular test offers them a better chance of not dying of lung cancer. The higher your cancer risk, the more likely it is that annual screenings will prevent death from lung cancer. The more pack years in your smoking history, the higher your lung cancer risk.
Risks of lung screening

The quality of the evidence about lung cancer screening risks is moderate.
False-positive result and follow-up

A CT scan will find nodules or other problems that aren’t cancer. This is called a false-positive result. This could cause you to have other tests or treatments that it turns out you didn’t need, and they could cause their own problems.

Take a group of 1,000 people who have annual lung cancer screening . About 365 of them will have at least one false-positive result. Of the 1,000 people tested, 25 will have an invasive procedure, such as a lung biopsy, because of a false-positive result. And 3 out of 1,000 will have a major complication because of that procedure. Major complications include collapsed lung, major bleeding, and, in rare cases, death.

Overdiagnosis

Screening may find cancers that might never be life-threatening.
This is called overdiagnosis. It could cause you to have treatment you don’t need. And that treatment could cause its own problems.

Take a group of 1,000 people who have annual lung cancer screening . Experts estimate that about 4 of them will get cancer treatment they didn’t actually need.

Radiation-caused cancer

There is a very small chance that the extra radiation exposure from annual lung cancer screening could cause a fatal cancer.
Lung cancer symptoms
Lung cancer often has no early signs or symptoms.

Some patients may have:
- Nagging cough
- Shortness of breath
Late signs of lung cancer include:
- Losing a great deal of weight unintentionally
- Coughing up blood
- Unexplained chest pain
- Cough or shortness of breath that gets worse

What matters most to you?

Your personal feelings are just as important as the medical facts. Think about what matters most to you in this decision, and show how you feel about the following statements.

Use these questions to help

Fill out the form below. When you click submit, your answers will be emailed to you. Use this information to make a decision about lung screening or to have a more in depth conversation with you primary care physician and family members.