Science+Daily

Lung Cancer   ﻿ ﻿Lung cancer is the number 1 cause of death by cancer,and lung cancer's main cause is smoking. Lung cancer is hard to detect in the early stages, but doctors have a new way to find out. Doctors will swab cells off of your cheek and from that they can tell if you have lung cancer or not. This process is called partial wave spectroscopic (PWS) microscopy. This method of prescreening people is less expensive and will identify those individuals who are at a greater risk for lung cancer. Then if you are determined to be at an increased risk, your doctor may order more expensive tests or treatments, such as a bronchoscopy or CT scan. This method could also increase survival rates if the lung cancer is detected at an early stage. Without using the PWS method of prescreening lung cancer, most lung cancers are already advanced by the time the disease is diagnosed and the person is symptomatic. A study was developed to determine the effectiveness of the PWS test. The study group consisted of 135 participants. Some of the participants were already diagnosed with lung cancer while others smoked and had COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). And yet others in the study were non-smokers. The test was found to be sensitive to cancers in their earliest stages, when they are most treatable. It is able to detect smaller than microscopic cells that are suspicious for cancer. This test will not only save lives and help increase cure rates, but it can also save a lot of money for both insurance companies and Medicare.