The American Lung Association’s “State of Lung Cancer” 2019 report indicates Louisiana has one of the lowest five-year survival rates in the nation at 17%. LSU pulmonary critical care professor of medicine Dr. Stephen Kantrow says the alarming stat comes at a time when there has been so much progress in the treatment and screening for the disease.
“There’s so much we can do to help prevent lung cancer, to identify lung cancer early, to treat lung cancer, and yet Louisiana seems to be lagging,” said Kantrow.
19% of cases in Louisiana are caught in an early stage when five-year survival rates are much higher, compared to 22% on the national level. Louisiana is ranked 41 of 48.
Among the recommendations in the prevention of lung cancer, Kantrow says combatting smoking is still a big part of prevention. Across the nation, smoking rates have declined.
“Louisiana remains still above the average in terms of smoking and it’s maybe important to recognize that smoking has been driven out of a lot of populations. Our most educated, our wealthiest populations, practically don’t smoke,” said Kantrow.
Kantrow adds in Louisiana, there are vulnerable populations who continue to smoke for whom there are barriers in the access to healthcare.
For longtime smokers, Kantrow recommends a CT scan screening annually. Low-dose CT scans among those who qualify can reduce the death rate by up to 20%.
“Having the right kind of tools in place, the right doctors in place to make sure people are getting great care when they get these CT scans because you have to know what to do next about that, but the discovery of cancer, when it’s in an early stage, that is when it is curable,” said Kantrow.
An early-stage diagnosis can often be treated with surgery and has a much higher survival rate at 58%
