The Haute Autorité de Santé has just announced the launch of a pilot program to assess the feasibility of systematic screening for lung cancer.
- Lung cancer kills more than 30,000 people each year in France
- Until now very reserved on systematic screening, the HAS is launching a pilot program with a view to its implementation
Health professionals and in the first place pulmonologists have been waiting for this decision for a long time: the first steps have just been taken by the High Authority for Health to set up systematic screening for lung cancer. Placed in the heart of the news by studies showing the sharp increase in cases among women and by the testimonies of personalities -Jean-Pierre Pernaud, Florent Pagny- affected by the disease, lung cancer kills each year in France more than 33,000 people and is the leading cause of death among men aged 45 to 64.
Offer a better chance of recovery
Screening for the disease would be all the more effective as this cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage, which greatly reduces the survival rate of patients. It would consist of detecting people who present a higher risk of developing the disease in order to offer them regular monitoring or prescribe a treatment offering a better chance of recovery. The examination which makes it possible to detect lung cancer is a chest scanner called computed tomography followed, in the event of an anomaly, by additional examinations and a biopsy of the tumor.
This preventive strategy exists in particular in the United States and many pulmonologists in France would like it to be implemented in our country. Without going so far as to meet their expectations, the Haute Autorité de Santé announced on February 1 in a press release that it recommends that the National Cancer Institute (INCA) initiate a pilot program “with a view to setting up a screening program. Until now, the HAS had been very reserved on lung cancer screening, in particular because of the risk of overdiagnosis concerning lesions without risk of becoming symptomatic or positive fires “could generate anxiety or additional examinations and treatment with increased risk of complications.
“An organized, effective and safe screening”
But it is therefore now opening up to additional studies that could lead to “the establishment of an organized, effective and safe screening program”. Concretely, the High Authority recommends that the following be defined:
. The target population (population exposed to high risk, quantification of smoking including passive smoking)
. The screening procedure (duration and frequency)
In addition, it wishes to assess in more detail:
. Public health elements (effectiveness of care, actions against smoking)
. The security of the screening program (rhythm and reliability of examinations)
. Acceptability of screening (how to achieve a sufficient participation rate and psychological impact of screening)
. Organizational and economic impacts
. Ethical and societal aspects (disparities in access to screening with chronic smoking strongly associated with socio-economic status)
In announcing this program, the HAS underlines “the interest of an experiment” and recalls that screening “in people with an increased risk of this cancer reduces the specific mortality of this one”.
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