NEW DELHI: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here has invited chain smokers for a research on the early detection of lung cancer through CT scan in an early stage of the disease. The Institute said that the CT scan of the lungs is one of the modalities to find out the development of lung cancer. However, since it is detected in later stages which leads to minimal chances of survival, the institute will research whether a CT scan can find out the cancer in a preliminary stage.
For this, the Pulmonary Medicine Department of AIIMS is finding a suitable study group. The research will be conducted on people above 50 years of age who are heavy smokers. Officials said that an attempt will be made to find out through low-dose CT scans whether lung cancer can be caught in the early stages due to the changes seen in CT scans, thereby preventing the disease.
People who are part of the study will be given a free CT scan. The study period is not defined but it will be for a few months or till the planned numbers are achieved, AIIMS said. “Most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage leading to poor outcomes. Screening using low-dose computed tomography (low-dose CT scan) among smokers may be one of the modalities that could help pick up lung cancer early. The Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, AIIMS is conducting a pilot study to see the effect of Low dose CT on early lung cancer diagnosis.
In this study heavy smokers above the age of 50 years will undergo free low dose CT scans,” the institute said. AIIMS, citing official data, said that there were around 1,03,371 cases of lung cancer in India in 2022. Generally, after the diagnosis of lung cancer, on average, only 8 to 9 months are left for a patient.
According to AIIMS, the median range of survival post the detection of a lung cancer is merely 8.8 months. By the time the cancer is detected, the disease spreads throughout the body AIIMS will work to see if there is any way to identify lung cancer patients on time.