The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday urged people at a higher risk of lung cancer to get tested, saying that late-stage detection is the main reason behind deaths from the disease.
Lung cancer has become the most common cancer in Taiwan, and is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths locally and globally, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) said, citing statistics from the Taiwan Cancer Registry.
The standardized mortality rate of lung cancer in 2022 was 21.8 per 100,000 people, which was lower than the rate of 26 per 100,000 people in 2011. However, deaths from lung cancer still accounted for 19.4 percent of all cancer-related deaths in 2022.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
The Taiwan Cancer Registry data showed that in 2021, about 60 percent of the people diagnosed with lung cancer were already in the advanced stages of 3 or 4, Wu said, adding that while the five-year-survival rate for early-stage lung cancer is higher than 90 percent, it is only about 10 percent for stage 4.
The HPA included lung cancer in its government-funded cancer screening program for adults from July 1, 2022, allowing people of certain age groups with high-risk factors, such as a family history of lung cancer or heavy smokers, to get a free low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scan every two years, he said.
As of Jan. 2, about 78,000 people had received LDCT screening through the program, with 956 people being diagnosed with lung cancer, Wu said, adding that 85.1 percent of the cases were early-stage cancer, which showed that LDCT was effective in detecting early cases.
Of the 956 cases, 694 had a family history of lung cancer, 228 people were heavy smokers and 34 people were both, HPA Cancer Prevention Division director Lin Li-ju (林莉茹) said.
Taiwan Society of Thoracic Surgeons chairperson Chen Jin-shing (陳晉興) said that while many people are concerned when a lung nodule is detected, small nodules are common and are usually considered normal if they are smaller than 0.6cm.
People only need follow-up checks every two years to see if they stay the same size, Chen said.
However, if the nodule is between 0.6cm and 0.8cm in size, they should get a follow-up about three to six months afterward, and if the nodule is bigger than 0.8cm, they might need a biopsy or surgery to determine whether it is malignant, he said.
The HPA encourages high-risk people who are eligible for the government-funded LDCT to get a test for lung cancer at one of the 179 contracted hospitals for early detection and treatment.
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