Diagnosing Lung Cancer in Good Time

In Switzerland more than ten people develop lung cancer every day, i.e. 3,800 each year. Nearly everyone dies of this disease; if a patient is found to have developed lung cancer in Switzerland today, the patient only has a 15 % chance of being cured. Today, in most cases, lung cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage – far too late for any effective therapeutic measures. Lung cancer, in fact, is the form of cancer that most people die of in Switzerland.

This does not have to be the case. There is a scientifically approved method that can clearly reduce deaths from lung cancer. Whoever as a smoker, ex-smoker or non-smoker belongs to a risk-group, can undergo a lung-cancer test with low-dose computed tomographic screening (CT). This CT screening enables most of the sources of lung cancer to be detected at a very early stage and thus at a stage where it can be cured. There is no other method existing today for diagnosing lung cancer reliably, in good time and systematically.

In order to reduce the high, lung-cancer mortality rate, the non-profit Foundation for Pulmonary Diagnostics runs the National Programme for Early Lung-Cancer Diagnosis.

In this programme the Foundation for Pulmonary Diagnostics offers those who belong to a risk-group the possibility of having themselves tested simply, quickly and at low cost with low-dose computed tomographic screening (CT). They are subsequently told at the earliest stage possible – that still enables a successful course of treatment to be given – whether they have lung cancer. They are then recommended a course of treatment.

If you think that you belong to a risk-group, you can subscribe here. We shall also be pleased to answer all your questions about the programme for early, lung-cancer diagnosis.

Do you belong to a risk group?
You belong to a risk group if you, as a smoker or ex-smoker or non-smoker who has never smoked, answer one or more of the following questions in the affirmative.

Question 1: Are you 50 years old or more, and do you have 20 or more so-called «packet years» (e.g. have you smoked one packet every day for 20 years, or 2 packets every day for 10 years, etc.)? If you are an ex smoker: Have you stopped smoking less than ten years ago?

Question 2: Have you had lung cancer that is considered cured?

Question 3: Are you 50 years old or more, and do you have, or have you had nasopharyngeal cancer?

Question 4: Are you 50 years old or more, and are you exposed, or have you been exposed to carcinogenic substances, such as passive smoke, asbestos, radon, diesel soot particles or diesel fumes, on a regular daily basis for several hours? (In these cases, approval for the early detection of lung cancer only after special, individual prior clarification.)

Question 5:Are you 50 years old or more, and do you have, or did you have two or more relatives in the first degree (parents, children or brothers and sisters) who have developed lung cancer?

If your answer to one or more of the above questions is in the affirmative, we advise you to have yourself examined.

 

Phone 044 384 84 84
Monday to Friday 1000 to 1200 and 1400 to 1600 hrs.

 

Studies:
«Reduced Lung-Cancer Mortality with Low-Dose Computed Tomographic Screening», published in «The New England Journal of Medicine», 4th August, 2011, Vol. 365, No. 5

«Survival of Patients with Stage I Lung Cancer Detected on CT Screening», published in «The New England Journal of Medicine», 26th October 2006, Vol. 355, No. 17