REGGIO EMILIA – More than 300 people, heavy smokers and former smokers, will be offered to participate in the program developed by the Ministry of Health and the Italian Pulmonary Screening Network. A program involving about twenty centers in Italy with the aim of achieving screening for the early diagnosis of lung cancer, one of the most difficult neoplasms to detect.
“The lung is a non-innervated organ, it does not cause pain, it does not involve the classic symptom which can then alarm the patient – he explains Nicholas Facciolongo, director of the Complex Structure of Pneumology at Santa Maria Nuova -, even anatomically it is a complex organ, there are many branches. The nodule may not be seen on normal endoscopic examinations.”
People will be offered to take a CT scan. The project is experimental, the path is all to be structured. “Like all other screenings, lung screening must also be repeated over time – he specifies Paolo Giorgi Rossidirector of the Complex Structure of Epidemiology of the Reggio Emilia AUSL -, there are studies that have demonstrated a reduction in mortality with an annual interval, others with a two-year interval, we must demonstrate this “.
The initiative is aimed at people aged between 55 and 74 who have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for at least 30 years, or more packs for a shorter time. The former will be recruited in anti-smoking centres, but you can also apply independently by registering on the website www.programmarisp.it.
The data say that 4% of the lesions identified correspond to a real neoplasm, but sometimes what is found is not so clear. “The first thing to do when they are not so suspicious is to check them over time – he says Pierpaolo Pattacini, director of the Diagnostic Imaging Department of the Ausl -, people must know that they risk taking an exam that is not yes or no, but they remain in limbo and there is nothing else to do. There’s no need to go to a specialist, it’s not like someone else sees better. Many times they have to retake the exam and have to come back to us after 3 or 6 months.
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