The rate of lung cancer is declining due to the fact that people are smoking less, but that doesn’t mean that the current screening parameters are good enough, she added. She believes that the screening criteria need to be adjusted periodically so that lung cancers can be caught in a timely manner.

Yang mentioned that more research is needed to determine if similar trends are being found beyond their sample population. If it’s confirmed, she recommends that policymakers change the screening guidelines to include individuals who quit smoking over 15 years ago and continue to monitor what groups are classified as highest risk.


Another study, published this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, offered even further incentives for smokers to stop putting off quitting. The first-of-its-kind study evaluated smoking habits before and after diagnosis for 20,600 breast cancer patients between the ages of 20 and 79 who were diagnosed between 1988 and 2008.

The researchers, out of the University of California San Francisco, determined that breast cancer survivors who quit smoking after their diagnosis had a 33 percent lower risk of death from the disease than those who continued to smoke. They recommend that smoking cessation programs be considered as part of cancer therapy.

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