Prostate cancer has the PSA blood test.
Colon cancer has the colonoscopy.
That question has plagued lung specialists, who remain stymied by lung cancer's high rate of mortality and a lack of a proven early detection method. The problem has been that current detection methods, such as chest X-rays, have never been found to be effective in reducing lung cancer deaths, while newer techniques are controversial because they are still unproven. Without such an early detection method, which has helped improve survival rates for other forms of cancers, the five-year survival rate for lung cancer remains a gruesome 14 percent, killing 158,000 Americans annually. Too Late The disease is often detected too late, when the patient shows up at their doctor's office with shortness of breath, chest pain and coughing up blood. We have a big problem.