Because of these characteristics and differences in treatment, “lung cancer in never smokers should be thought of as a separate type of disease,” he says.
How Taiwan has adapted to non-smokers
Because of the common perception that lung cancer is caused only by smoking, non-smokers often are unaware of the disease until it develops. The latest stage.
The lungs With so few nerve endings, “the most common symptom of lung cancer is no symptoms at all,” says Dr Pan Cher Yan, a respiratory physician and former NTU president. The patient is Sen Miyou.
Lung cancer screening is one method of early detection, but in 2011 the only evidence A national lung screening trial focused on a population of predominantly white heavy smokers.
“We can't just follow a screening program based on the white population of the United States,” Attorney Yang said. “We're going to miss two-thirds of lung cancer patients who have never smoked.”
So in 2015, Yang launched the Taiwan Nonsmokers Lung Cancer Screening Trial (TALENT), which tests people with risk factors like family history or cooking without ventilation but with little or no smoking history. (Air pollution was not studied here, because its link to lung cancer is well known and exposure is difficult to quantify, Lin says.)
After more than 12,000 participants gathered, Yang won the TALENT result They presented their discovery at the 2021 World Lung Cancer Conference. There are 2.1 cases of lung cancer for every 100 never-smokers tested. This compares with the National Lung Screening Trial: 1.1 percent Case numbers despite screening only People with a history of smoking. “Our criteria may be more effective,” Yang said.
And already Real World Evidence Lung cancer screening has helped detect tumors early in Taiwan. At NTU Hospital, the number of stage III and IV lung cancer diagnoses fell from 71% to 34% between 2006-2011 and 2015-2020, with early diagnosis closing the gap.
This means lives are being saved, Yang stressed, with the general five-year survival rate for lung cancer more than doubling, from 22% to 55%.
For reference, the lung cancer survival rate in the United States today is 25 percent.