The founder and lead surgeon of the North Texas Cancer Center at Wise talks about screening guidelines and their limitations.

Decatur, TX – As CT scans continue to prove themselves very beneficial in helping doctors detect lung cancer sooner, some healthcare professionals are calling for expanded guidelines to open their use up to more patients on a regular basis. This simple test enables doctors to detect cancer early in those at the highest risk, but current guidelines don’t necessarily include all high-risk patients.

“The current guidelines weren’t necessarily written to cover all high-risk patients,” explains Dr. Gregory Echt, founder and lead surgeon at the North Texas Cancer Center at Wise. “The problem with that is those guidelines, meant for use in the National Lung Screening Trial, may sometimes impede Medicare reimbursement, making this test off limits to some who may not be able to afford it.”

At present, the guidelines for early lung cancer screening through the use of CT scans is targeted toward people between the age of 55 and 74 who smoked at least a pack a day for 30 years. While these people do, of course, fall into the high-risk group, many others do, as well. A recent study looked at the gaps in the testing guidelines. Researchers pointed out that people who smoked for at least 20 years are still in extremely high risk for this disease as are many others.

To gauge the effectiveness of the current guidelines, researchers looked at scans for 1,700 patients screened for lung cancer. Of those patients, about 1,200 qualified for scans under the current guidelines. About 500 patients were high-risk, but didn’t meet the requirements. The rate of cancers detected, however, was roughly the same for the two groups.

“Making scans more accessible to those who don’t meet the current guidelines could enhance survival rates for many high-risk patients,” Dr. Echt says.

People who smoke or who have smoked are urged to talk to their doctors about lung cancer screening. CT scans may be recommended in some cases regardless of Medicare reimbursement.

About North Texas Cancer Center at Wise
North Texas Cancer Center at Wise, a division of Choice Cancer Care, is now operating as the Cancer Center at Wise Regional and is one of the most renowned cancer treatment centers in Texas. The center unites some of the best cancer doctors and surgeons, medical oncologists and radiation oncologists. Our expert team delivers superior cancer treatment in Texas, with the best results available.