Pulmonary & Respiratory Medicine

Lung cancer screening issues

Lung cancer screening may make smokers less motivated to give up smoking, according to a 2015 study by academics at the University of Seattle and the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. The research team looked at 37 smokers who had received lung cancer screenings from their primary care physician in 2014. The research team interviewed the smokers after the screening. The researchers discovered that over half of individuals surveyed had some justification for thinking that getting checked did not need them to give up smoking.

The same benefits as quitting smoking. Still others believed that a cancer-free screening test proved they were among the fortunate ones who would avoid the negative effects of smoking. They also believed that being able to return for additional screenings would safeguard them. These are all untrue assumptions, just as many study participants believed lung cancer to be the only potentially fatal side effect of smoking.