Who Needs to be Screened for Lung Cancer?
November 13, 2024
A Q&A with TMH Pulmonologist Alberto Fernandez, MD
People can often live for years with lung cancer before they develop any symptoms or receive a diagnosis, and by then it can be too late. However, if you follow the screening guidelines recommended by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, you can drastically increase your chances of receiving a diagnosis and beginning treatment while the cancer is still in its earliest stages. Alberto Fernandez, MD, a pulmonologist with TMH Physician Partners – Pulmonology, Critical Care and Sleep explains who should be screened for lung cancer and what tools and resources Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) has to care for patients.
What is the best way for a patient to find lung cancer as early as possible?
The best way is to have a conversation with your physician about lung cancer screening. If you're a patient who is at a high risk for developing lung cancer, which means you're 50 years of age or older, have a 20-pack year smoking history or more (which amounts to smoking at least a pack of cigarettes per day for 20 years or more) and are either an active smoker or have quit within the past 15 years, lung cancer screening would likely be appropriate for you.
What does the screening process typically look like for a patient?
If you’re eligible for lung cancer screening, you’ll get a referral to a radiologist or visit your physician’s radiology department to receive a low-dose CT scan of your chest. Your provider will review pictures of your lungs to look for any kind of early abnormality either in your lungs or other structures within your chest.
What kind of tools does TMH have available to detect and diagnose lung cancer?
If we find something suspicious from imaging, we have a robotic device called the MONARCH™ Robotic Bronchoscopy Platform. When we’re looking for suspicious lesions that might be smaller or in hard-to-reach areas of the lungs, we use this computer-guided technology to help get deeper into the lungs, and more accurately, so we can perform a biopsy and confirm if these lesions are cancerous and get a secure diagnosis earlier for patients.
What happens if you do diagnose a patient with lung cancer?
You’ll have a conversation with your primary care physician about being referred to see a lung cancer specialist. Here in Tallahassee, TMH has the Region's first multi-disciplinary Thoracic Oncology Clinic. We have pulmonologists, surgeons, pathologists and medical and radiation oncologists who routinely gather at the Tallahassee Memorial Cancer Center to review new cases collaboratively and determine what might be the best approach for both the diagnosis and patient, and then together with the patient, we forge a path for treatment.
To learn more about lung cancer care at TMH, visit TMH.ORG/LungCancer.
