92% of lung cancer patients would survive 10 years of diagnosing the disease through annual CT reviews. This has been deduced by the International Study of Early Detection of Lung Cancer (IELCAP). The Clínica Universitaria de Navarra and the Centro de Medicina Aplicada (CIMA) participated in this research.
The research has analyzed more than 31,000 smokers over 40 years of age and in 484 cases lung cancer has been diagnosed, of which 85% are at the earliest stage. 88% of patients diagnosed in this phase live 10 years later, an index that reaches 92% if surgical treatment began within a month.
The results of the research are very important, as currently 15% of lung cancer patients manage to survive five years. The symptoms of lung cancer appear very late, so when the patient goes to the medical office, the disease is very advanced, so this rate is so low. However, the IELCAP study has shown that it is possible to observe tumors at a very early stage, since the average diameter of tumors detected in the study ranges from 9 to 13 mm.