Lung cancer: a brief review of epidemiology and screening. (8th February 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gouvinhas, Cláudia; De Mello, Ramon Andrade; Oliveira, Daniela; Castro-Lopes, José Manuel; Castelo-Branco, Pedro; dos Santos, Ricardo Sales; Hespanhol, Venceslau; Pozza, Daniel Humberto
• Is Part Of: Future oncology. Volume 14:Number 6(2018)
• Page Start: 567
• Page End: 575
• Publication Date: 2018-02-08
• Subjects: biomarkers -- epidemiology -- low-dose computed tomography -- lung cancer screening -- smoking; Oncology -- Periodicals; 616.99405
• DOI: 10.2217/fon-2017-0486
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1479-6694

Abstract

The global burden of lung cancer has been increasing over the past years, and is still a major threat to public health worldwide, leading to disabilities and premature mortality. Despite multifactorial cause, smoking remains as the major etiological factor, followed by occupational exposure to carcinogens, genetic predisposition and other concomitant diseases. In order to reduce the individual and social burden due to the direct and indirect costs related to the lung cancer treatment, accurate methods of screening are needed. Among those, x-ray with cytological analysis of sputum was first proposed. Nowadays, more sensitive methods such as low-dose computed tomography are being used to improve the early detection. In the future, molecular biomarkers may complement low-dose computed tomography and improve the robustness of early lung cancer detection.