Abstract

NETO, Inês Domingues  and  QUEIROGA, Henrique José Correia. Early diagnosis of lung cancer. Arq Med [online]. 2015, vol.29, n.1, pp.20-28. ISSN 2183-2447.

Lung cancer is currently the leading cause of death from cancer worldwide, including in Portugal. Despite recent advances in cancer treatment, the prognostic for lung cancer patients remains inauspicious. The overall 5-year survival rate in the United States is approximately 15% and less than 10% in Europe. However, if diagnosed in the disease early stages and as a result having the patient been submitted to radical surgery, 5-year survival rates are between 60% and 80%. That being the case, it becomes urgent and of great importance the implementation of measures that increase the awareness of lung cancer symptoms and the development of methods which lead to early detection of this cancer. The thoracic radiography, sputum cytology, bronchoscopy, low-dose computed tomography (lDCT), biomarkers and positron emission tomography (PET) are methods that have been studied for early detection of lung cancer. This study aims to assess and review the main methods developed in the last decades and its effectiveness in early detection of lung cancer.

Keywords : lung cancer; early diagnosis; thoracic radiography; low-dose computed tomography; biomarkers.

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