Lung Cancer Diagnosis Rate Increased in Pandemic

Chest Diseases Specialist Dr. Lecturer Seha Akduman stated that the number of newly diagnosed lung cancer is 5 times higher than last year's average.

Chest Diseases Specialist Dr. Lecturer Member Seha Akduman said, “Especially smokers that we could not convince for tomography had to have tomography due to coronavirus. In this way, we were able to catch lung cancer at an early stage, ”he said. The new diagnosis stated that the number of lung cancers was 5 times higher than last year's average.

He pointed out that lung cancer is the cancer type that causes the most loss of life for both sexes in the world and in Turkey. Lecturer Member Seha Akduman said, “Turkey is among the top 10 countries where lung cancer is most common in the world. Lung cancer is seen due to both increasing age and smoking as well as uncontrolled air pollution. Lung cancer diagnosis rate increased with coronavirus. Control tomographs taken due to coronavirus increased the rates of newly diagnosed lung cancer. Since the number of chest and lung tomography, which we call thoracic tomography, is much higher than normal, according to the Ministry of Health data, the number of early stage and newly diagnosed lung cancers is 5 times higher than the average of last year. These are the numbers all over the world. "The number of newly diagnosed lung cancer has exceeded the usual high in these periods compared to the previous years."

"Convinced smokers to coronavirus tomography."

Explaining that with the use of tomography more because of diagnosis, the chance of catching the early stage of the disease increases, Dr. Lecturer Member Akduman said, “The smoking rate in our country is around 45 percent. Smoking is the most important risk factor for lung cancer. The fact that smokers, who could not be persuaded to have tomography before, had to have tomography due to coronavirus, created the opportunity to catch lung cancer at an early stage. This situation also increased the chance of treatment, ”he said.

Drawing attention to the prevalence of lung cancer in both genders in recent years, Dr. Lecturer Akduman said, “In previous years, we used to see lung cancer in men. We now see it very widely in both sexes. Unfortunately, the disease is quite advanced. We catch two-thirds of the patients with lung cancer in the non-operable period. We try to treat it with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. However, in fact, the most basic and desired treatment method in lung cancer is early diagnosis and surgery ”.

"Chest radiography is insufficient in the risky group"

Stating that quitting smoking is important but does not reset the risk, Dr. Lecturer Member Akduman made the following warnings:

“If you have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years, your risk of lung cancer will increase. zammoment with you. Although it decreases over the years after quitting smoking, the risk still continues compared to the population that has never smoked. We definitely recommend screening test with low-dose lung tomography in our patients over 50 years of age with 30-35 years of smoking history, but chest X-ray is insufficient in the risky group. For us to see a lesion here, it must be at least 1 centimeter. We can detect the lesion that we missed in the chest X-ray by following the nodule in the tomography. However, it is not necessary to say 'we drank, we already took the risk'. The longer the cigarette is used, the greater the risk. What zammoment if you leave it zamthe moment you start getting lucky.” said.

"Bloody sputum, watch out for persistent cough"

Pointing out that bloody sputum seen in smokers is a sign of cancer that should be taken seriously, Chest Diseases Specialist Dr. Lecturer Member Seha Akduman said, “Besides, hoarseness is very critical in both thyroid and lung cancer. Back pain is risky if there is pleural or nerve cell involvement. Persistent cough that does not go away, frequent pneumonia should be taken seriously. For example, if a patient's frequent pneumonia is on the same side and is constantly resistant, there may be an obstructive tumor in the trachea. We can visualize bloody sputum and persistent cough with bronchoscopy. It is important to view the inside of the trachea with a camera ”he warned.