Prevention for Lung Cancer

The best way to prevent lung cancer is to quit smoking, or to never start in the first place. You should try and avoid being around people who are smoking; and also avoid pipes, cigars, and marijuana. If you live in an area with radon, you should make sure there is adequate ventilation in your basement to get rid of it. Use a detector to make sure the radon levels are low. If you work in an industry where you are exposed to substances known to cause lung cancer, make sure to use all the proper protective equipment and attire made available by your employer.

There has been some suggestion that a diet high in fruits and vegetables may decrease your risk of lung cancer. This has yet to be definitively proven. Many substances, including antioxidants like vitamin A, vitamin E, and beta-carotene, have been suggested to decrease your risk of lung cancer. None of these has been shown to be beneficial in randomized controlled trials and cannot be recommended for this purpose. In fact, large clinical trials have shown and increased risk of lung cancer in patients that take increased quantities of vitamin E, vitamin A, and beta-carotene.

The future of lung cancer prevention will rely on sophisticated analysis of patients' genes and molecular markers for lung cancer risk; this coupled with "smart drug" design and novel imaging techniques may one day help decrease the risk of developing lung cancer.

What screening tests are available?

It is generally held that there are no good screening tests available for lung cancer. In all of the studies conducted to date, comparing people who are screened with chest x- rays and/or sputum samples, there has never been a documented decrease in deaths from lung cancer due to screening. However, this is an issue that is hotly debated because some studies have shown that cancers can be picked up in earlier stages if patients are screened with chest x-rays. The problem is that picking up the cancers earlier hasn't translated to a decrease in deaths because of the screening. Some doctors may choose to screen high risk patients (usually those patients over 50 years old with a significant smoking history) with annual chest x-rays in an effort to find cancers earlier, however, no professional society has endorsed this practice. Currently, there is debate about the utility of screening people with CT scans (3-D x-rays that are more sensitive than standard chest x-rays). The debate is the same as with chest x-rays; no one has demonstrated a decreased mortality in patients screened with CT scans thus far. As more data is collected and more sophisticated imaging techniques are developed, perhaps one day there will be a good screening test for lung cancer. In the absence of a good screening tool, the best way we can decrease the number of lung cancer deaths is to help people to quit smoking.