Question? Answers from our cancer experts

Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in the U.S. and although new precision therapies have helped curb its high mortality rate, both smokers and nonsmokers continue to be diagnosed with various forms of this cancer due to commercial tobacco use, radon, air pollution and other drivers of the disease.

Preventive lung cancer screening, used to detect whether a tumor is beginning to grow, has been available for around a decade. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force currently recommends adults between 50 and 80 who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and who currently smoke (or have quit within the past 15 years) receive a low-dose computed tomography (CT) every year.

Unfortunately, recent research from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center found nearly half of people with “positive” lung cancer screening CTs, (and positive is not good in cancer) had delays in their follow-up. As a result, some of these people had their cancers diagnosed at a later stage. Early detection works best when any suspicious findings caught on a scan are investigated.

But what about people who don’t smoke but live or work or play around those who do?   

A regular Fred Hutch News reader wondered if low-dose CT lung cancer screening was available for nonsmokers who grew up around people who smoked, a perfect question during November, Lung Cancer Awareness Month.