For the most part, the massive cancer screening industry is a failed and flawed enterprise—relentlessly pushing costly, dangerous, inappropriate, and ineffective screenings for breast, colon, prostate, and skin cancer.
But when it comes lung cancer—the No. 1 cause of cancer deaths among U.S. men and women—the mainstream basically ignores a safe and effective screening test called low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) that could potentially save half a million lives over the next 10 years!
Thankfully, some sensible physicians are finally starting to see the light. In fact, a prominent family physician at Georgetown University Medical Center (where I served as an adjunct professor) recently confessed he had, “changed [his] mind on lung cancer screening”—based on some new research on LDCT.
So, today, let’s go over the findings that led the good doctor to finally have a change of heart…
16 percent reduction in lung cancer deaths
Back in 2013, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) began recommending LDCT screening for current or former smokers between the ages of 55 to 80 years with a 30-pack–year (or more) smoking history. (Thirty pack years refers to smoking one pack of cigarettes per day for 30 years; two packs a day for 15 years; or three packs per day for 10 years.)
Well, just last summer, in July 2020, the USPSTF widened the net and began recommending LDCT screening for current and former smokers starting at age 50 years (instead of 55). Plus, it lowered the smoking history threshold to 20 pack years (or more).
They based this expanded recommendation on an independent meta-analysis published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine—which pooled the results of nine clinical trials that involved nearly 100,000 participants.
It turns out, LDCT screening reduced lung cancer deaths in these studies by an impressive 16 percent.
Now—as you may know—I put a lot of emphasis on death rates because it’s the one statistic that really counts.
For one, statisticians can’t mess with it—either a person dies or they don’t. So, in my view, it’s the ultimate litmus test of whether any screening or any treatment, for that matter, actually works.
And—let me tell you—if the crony cancer industry had any screening or treatment that could improve cancer death rates by 16 percent…it would be a gold mine! And you can bet they’d make sure everyone and their brother and sister knew all about it!
Double standard applied to cancer screenings
In another recent study, researchers found that LDCT screening causes very little harm, especially when compared to other “routine” cancer screenings, such as mammograms and prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests.
In that community-based study, researchers analyzed data for more than 6,000 LDCT screenings administered in Portland, Oregon. Of the 85 patients who were found to have lung cancer and underwent surgical treatments, only two died.
In addition, only 8 percent of the initial screenings were false positives. And fewer than one in 1,000 patients with false-positive results experienced any complications from a further diagnostic procedure to rule lung cancer in or out.
By comparison, mammograms and PSA testing suffer from much higher false positive rates…even as high as 50 to 75 percent, in some studies! And these false positives lead to serious overdiagnosis AND overtreatment. Including disfiguring surgeries, toxic chemotherapy, and invasive radiation.
So, clearly, mainstream medicine still holds a “blame-the-victim” mentality when it comes to lung cancer. And applies a double standard to screening for it.
But as my Georgetown colleague stated, physicians can and should do more to prevent lung cancer deaths by prescribing this LDCT screening to at-risk patients. We should also streamline public and private health insurance requirements to reduce barriers for providing this service. (Thankfully, Medicare now covers it.) In other words, we need to make it as easy to get a LDCT screening as it is to get a mammogram, PSA test, or colonoscopy.
Especially because lung cancer remains the most common and deadliest of all cancers. And screening for it can prevent deaths better than other kinds of cancer screenings…
Ask for LDCT screening by name
If you or someone you know is at risk of developing lung cancer, make sure you work with a medical professional who doesn’t just pass along their biases against smokers, but who really knows (and understands) the data on the benefits of early screening. And ask for LDCT screening by name!
You can also learn about the many natural steps you can take to help protect your lung health in my Breathe Better Lung Health Protocol.
This innovative, online protocol is the sum total of more than 40 years of personal research, study, and experience. And every solution you’ll hear about has been studied and researched by countless, cutting-edge medical institutions. To learn more, or to enroll today, click here now!
Source:
“I’ve Changed My Mind on Lung Cancer Screening.” Medscape, 8/18/20. (medscape.com/viewarticle/935897)