“Lung Health”: The program that saves lives

This shocking number has led to the establishment of the entire month of November as a month of awareness, proper information and understanding of the disease of lung cancer, with the aim of saving even more lives by expanding the implementation of strategies for prevention, early diagnosis and treatment.

What do we mean when we say prevention?
When we talk about prevention of lung cancer (and any cancer) we mean any action taken with the aim of reducing the possibility of developing the disease. Prevention can be primary, that is to prevent the occurrence of a disease, however in lung cancer, at the moment, we cannot literally talk about primary prevention, but about limiting the risk factors of its occurrence.

That is why it is of great importance, alongside the intensification of smoking cessation programs, to invest in secondary prevention, i.e. in the early diagnosis of the disease, the diagnosis at the earliest possible stage.

In recent years, the medical community has favored low-dose CT without contrast (low-dose CT, LDCT) as a diagnostic tool for lung cancer. Today, low-dose CT screening is now approved for high-risk groups in the US and already in some European countries.

In addition, a pioneering hospital, Metropolitan Hospital – a member of the largest private healthcare group, the HHG Group – “went further”. He included this examination in a program, “Lung Health”, which is the first organized screening program in Greece for the early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer and which has already been awarded a Silver Award at the Patient Partnerships Awards 2022.

How does it work;
“Lung Health” combines the necessary, high-level scientific staffing and the necessary state-of-the-art medical-technological equipment and offers, for the first time in Greece, lung cancer prevention. Within the framework of the program, a special group of health scientists has been set up, made up of pulmonologists from the Pulmonology Clinic “Pnoi” and oncologists from the Model Center for Clinical Studies, the 4th and 2nd Oncology Clinics and from the other oncology sector, to offer consultation approach following an appointment at a weekly outpatient clinic, to as many people as want to be checked”, as Dr. Epaminondas Kosmas, Director of Pulmonology at the Metropolitan Hospital, informs.

What happens if lung cancer is detected?
“Lung cancer is not invincible. Information and awareness for prevention, smoking cessation and innovative treatments are of primary importance.

The relatively recent introduction of immunotherapy has changed the landscape and options in the treatment algorithm, offering significant hope for long-term survival in many patients.

Today, with impressive results, the addition of immunotherapy as a maintenance treatment is also taking place in earlier stages of lung cancer, when the disease is only locally advanced – in patients with stage 3, after classical chemo-radiotherapy – tripled the survival without recurrence of the disease and significantly increased the overall survival, offering one of the most important developments in recent years in the treatment of more initial stages of this difficult disease. “Recently, immunotherapy has been approved as an adjunctive treatment after early-stage surgery, but also as a pre-operative option together with chemotherapy, because it leads to significant rates of complete response of the disease, in early operable stages, resulting in safer and smaller surgeries”, points out the doctor Elena Linardou, PhD, Pathologist-Oncologist, Director of the 4th Oncology Clinic and its Model Center for Clinical Studies Metropolitan Hospital.

What else is good to keep in mind about lung cancer?
“The main cause of the disease is smoking (as it turns out in 90% of cases). In fact, even passive smoking increases the chance of lung cancer. A person who does not smoke and lives in the same place as a person who smokes has a 24% greater risk of disease.

Even in the cases of people who smoke for a long time, stopping smoking significantly reduces the risk.
It should be noted, however, that people 55-80 years old, who have smoked for 30 years or more or smoked and stopped less than 15 years ago, according to the US Preventive Services Task Force. they must be checked for lung cancer every year”, emphasizes Doctor Nikolaos Koufos, Doctor of the University of Athens, Head of the Interventional Pulmonology Unit of the Metropolitan Hospital.

The “Lung Health” Program at Metropolitan Hospital
Metropolitan Hospital is inviting women and men aged 50 and over, current or ex-smokers who have stopped smoking within the past 15 years and have a smoking history of 20 to 30 pack-years (pack-years: the packs of cigarettes you smoke or smoked per day for (X) total number of years you smoke/smoked), or have a family history of lung cancer, to contact: 210-480-9150, 210-480-9160, 210-480-9217 (weekdays and hours), in order to join the “Lung Health” program, which will be offered free of charge to people belonging to vulnerable social groups through the collaboration of HHG Group and Metropolitan Hospital with the non-profit organization Fairlife Lung Cancer Care, the organization that created in memory of Simon Bell.

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