Pneumonia Infection and Early Lung Cancer Screening: Low-Dose Chest Examination

Smoking explains the majority of lung cancer risk. Up to 90% of lung cancer patients are smokers. The risk goes up the longer you smoke, and with the majority of men aged 50 or above. Besides, second-hand smoke is also one of the high-risk factors for lung cancer. According to a study, smokers’ partners are 30% more likely to develop lung cancer due to second-hand smoke, and nearly 20% of children’s cancer cases are related to their fathers’ smoking. Moreover, the aging population, air pollution, inhalation of industrial chemicals or construction materials (such as asbestos, methyl ether, etc.) increase the likelihood of having lung cancers. A small percentage of patients have a genetic mutation that gives rise to “lung adenocarcinoma”.

Early-stage lung cancer usually has no obvious symptoms, but as the disease worsens, various symptoms will develop, including shortness of breath, hoarseness, dysphagia, persistent cough, blood-stained sputum, pain in the lungs when breathing deeply, repeated or long-unhealed lung infections. Patients may also experience loss of appetite, weight loss and easy fatigue, which are symptoms of lung cancer, although not occurring in the respiratory system.

Patients can be referred by their family doctor or specialist for a chest X-ray or computerised or computed tomography (CT) scan which are able to diagnose infection with pneumonia or early lung cancer.

Compared with a lung X-ray, a CT scan can precisely detect small tumors at an early stage and distinguish benign and malignant tumors with a higher accuracy. Long-term smokers aged 55-80 and people who need to rule out early-stage cancers can get doctors’ referrals to arrange for an annual low-radiometry lung scan to reduce the mortality risk of lung cancer.