NHS lung cancer tests for every ex-smoker

hollydolly

hollydolly

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Anyone who has ever smoked is set to be offered a lung check from middle age under a landmark NHS plan to boost cancer survival.

Ministers are poised to back a recommendation from screening chiefs to support the mass rollout of CT scans in mobile units and trucks in supermarket car parks.

Results from pilot schemes have found that three-quarters of lung cancer cases at stage one or two – when it is more likely to be treatable – can be spotted by the checks.

Normally, the majority of cases are found later, when the prognosis is far worse and the treatment is far more involved and costly.

The rollout of lung screening is expected to form part of a series of announcements this year to improve early diagnosis of cancer.

While no formal decision has been taken, Downing Street and the Department of Health and Social Care are understood to be in talks about funding levels for the programme, which would determine the speed of rollout.

The discussions follow recommendations from the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC), which said all former and current smokers aged between 55 and 74 should be invited to an assessment by a health professional.

Anyone then deemed at high risk of lung cancer would be offered a low-dose CT scan, under the recommendation.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/21/nhs-lung-cancer-tests-every-former-smoker-scan/
 

I am reminded of something from my youth. I am part of a five member family (2 siblings, Mum and Dad). Everyone smoked. I did not. The reason I didn't was down to Walt Disney, and more specifically, the Aristocats. I went to the cinema to watch it, taken by my brother. My brother smoked, and he gave me my first cigarette. I was young, 8 or 9. I'd seen people smoke, they sucked on the cigarette, breathed deeply, and then blew out. So I did that, taking huge lungs of air with deep, deep breaths.

Within minutes I felt ill. After 5 minutes, I was so ill I had to run to the bathroom. I vomited. My head swam, I had a sweat. So bad was I, I never got to see the Aristocats. I had to go home.

So, that was my first, and last cigarette.

Years later, in my teens, I went to the dentist. He took a look at the back of my teeth and asked, "how many cigarettes a day do you smoke?" I looked at him quizically. I didn't smoke. However, each evening I was in a living room with four smokers. My father used to repaint the ceiling every couple years because it had browned. So bad was the secondhand smoke, that *I* looked like I smoked too.

Today I'm the same, a non-smoker. No angel, but no smoking. Tobacco is evil.
 
hollydolly said:
Anyone who has ever smoked is set to be offered a lung check from middle age under a landmark NHS plan to boost cancer survival.
Click to expand...
Why I ever took up smoking is beyond me, but with the help and encouragement of my beloved, I quit at the age of twenty-two, five years after I started. Roll on eight years and an insurance company wants a medical report before underwriting my health for the mortgage we were about to take out. The doctor, after assessing me said that had she not known that I once smoked, would have assessed that I was a lifelong non-smoker. I was impressed, but I do remember how hard the addiction was and even harder to break it.

Moral being, don't give up, giving up.
 

horseless carriage said:
Moral being, don't give up, giving up.
Click to expand...

Alright, stupid question - at what point do you say, "oh, forget it, I've not got long, I'm going to try it." :D

Surely there's a point when it no longer matters. Not that I'm going to start, pulling smoke or vapor into my lungs isn't something I've ever done, so why would I start? But I don't know, there seems there must be a point when it really wouldn't matter. :D
 
That's a great idea to offer those free check for people who qualify. Preventive medicine in a way. Caught early, lower cost to treat & way better survival rate. The issue may be, will smokers actually show up for the free CT scans? To many it may be a case of either denial (won't happen to me) or, don't wanna know syndrome.
 
When I quit smoking after 30+ years, I figured it would be clear sailing- no after effects. Because of my spinal problems, I have to catheterize myself. On my yearly visit with my urologist, he found cancer in my bladder, which was removed. I had no idea that ex-smokers tend to develop bladder cancer. Who would have thought that? So anything to check on what you stupidly did to your body is OK with me.
 
VaughanJB said:
I am reminded of something from my youth. I am part of a five member family (2 siblings, Mum and Dad). Everyone smoked. I did not. The reason I didn't was down to Walt Disney, and more specifically, the Aristocats. I went to the cinema to watch it, taken by my brother. My brother smoked, and he gave me my first cigarette. I was young, 8 or 9. I'd seen people smoke, they sucked on the cigarette, breathed deeply, and then blew out. So I did that, taking huge lungs of air with deep, deep breaths.

Within minutes I felt ill. After 5 minutes, I was so ill I had to run to the bathroom. I vomited. My head swam, I had a sweat. So bad was I, I never got to see the Aristocats. I had to go home.

So, that was my first, and last cigarette.

Years later, in my teens, I went to the dentist. He took a look at the back of my teeth and asked, "how many cigarettes a day do you smoke?" I looked at him quizically. I didn't smoke. However, each evening I was in a living room with four smokers. My father used to repaint the ceiling every couple years because it had browned. So bad was the secondhand smoke, that *I* looked like I smoked too.

Today I'm the same, a non-smoker. No angel, but no smoking. Tobacco is evil.
Click to expand...
Tobacco is awful. And I remember feeling sick the first time I smoked. That should be a warning right there. But I did smoke for 5 years and quit at 25. Grateful for that. Especially watching all the smokers at work.

I am concerned about your second hand smoke exposure. That is no joke when it comes to your health.
 
@hollydolly thanks, that is interesting first I have heard of it. My mother died of lung cancer, was not diagnosed until she was at stage 4, too late, something like this might have saved her. Do you remember the lung x-ray scans they used to do for lung cancer screening? I think they stopped when it turned out too be too late once it showed up on an x-ray. This sounds a lot better.
VaughanJB said:
Alright, stupid question - at what point do you say, "oh, forget it, I've not got long, I'm going to try it." :D

Surely there's a point when it no longer matters. Not that I'm going to start, pulling smoke or vapor into my lungs isn't something I've ever done, so why would I start? But I don't know, there seems there must be a point when it really wouldn't matter. :D
Click to expand...
After I read that cigar smoking is more risky if you start young and I was 50 I thought what the hell... I'm not young.

Don't think my once a month in warm weather, almost never in winter, is going to kill me. Lots of other candidates for that.

Never smoked cigarettes, and probably never will. Can't do the inhaling thing, cigars are not inhaled.
 
I noticed at my husband's last appt and mine recently the Dr., as usual asked if we smoked. We both quit in 1980.
Then they asked how many years we smoked and how many packs. That seems new.
Maybe they will start that testing here soon.
 
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