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Cancer
Curbing the nation’s deadliest cancer
- By Maureen Salamon, Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch
Lung cancer screenings could save tens of thousands of lives each year. Do you need one?
About 50% more American women die from lung cancer each year than from breast cancer. Screening mammograms to detect the latter are considered routine for women over 40. So why haven’t lung cancer screenings caught up?
If you weren’t aware screening for lung cancer was even possible, that’s part of the problem, Harvard experts say. Nearly a decade after national guidelines led to broad screening programs for the nation’s deadliest cancer — which the American Cancer Society estimates will kill about 130,000 Americans in 2022, including 61,000 women — an "abysmal" 2% of those eligible for the testing get it, says Dr. Andrea McKee, founder of the CT lung cancer screening program at Harvard-affiliated Lahey Hospital and Medical Center.
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About the Author
Maureen Salamon, Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch
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