Smoking : to undergo a ct scan of screening helps to wean

jovanjaric/Epictura

Published the 31.07.2017 at 15h36

A A

Keywords :

withdrawal tabagiquescannercancer of the lung

Prevention, increase of tobacco prices, scrap sales strategies, financial aid weaning… All the tracks are being studied for reducing smoking, a primary risk factor for lung cancer, which kills nearly 2 million people each year, according to the WHO.

Screening for cancer of the lung would be a tool, according to a study from the university of Liverpool, published in the journal Thorax. The persons who have passed a scanner in the lung to observe any possible cancerous lesions or pre-cancer would have almost two times more likely to stop smoking, according to their results.

15 % of success

The british researchers have analyzed the success of the withdrawal in more than 1 500 people at risk of cancer, aged 50 to 75 years. At the beginning of the follow-up, half had past a scanner. Then, the rate of arrest has been evaluated at two weeks, then in two years.

Among the people who have not been screened by imaging, the rate of stopping after two weeks was 5 %, and 10 % in two years. In others, the simple act of passing a scanner seemed to be effective : they were 10 % to have stopped at the end of two weeks, and 15 % after two years.

“These results go against the belief that testing negative would give a “smoking allowed,” says professor John Field, an oncologist at the university of Liverpool and lead author of the study. Screening for lung gives an opportunity to access smoking cessation assistance, at a time when patients are most likely to be receptive “.

France doesn’t track

The screening in smokers at risk may therefore be useful in several respects. Detect more early cancers, in order to anticipate the treatment and increase their chances of success, and provide the opportunity for doctors to make the prevention and the promotion of weaning at the appropriate time, and efficient.

In 2016, when questioned on the usefulness of this screening in France in the framework of the cancer Plan 2014-2019, the High authority for health (HAS) had considered that ” the conditions of quality, safety and efficacy necessary to achieve the detection of breast cancer broncho-pulmonary computed tomography chest X-ray dose described as low in people heavily exposed to tobacco or who have been “, were not met.

It was in particular justified this decision by the difficulties to identify the populations most at risk, and the risk associated with the irradiation of these persons, while stressing the interest of research on the issue. The results of the English scholars could advance this process of reflection.