Smokers rush to be tested This news resulted in a small stampede, with many hospitals offering CT scans for smokers and former smokers. Many former smokers who smoked a pack a day for ten years are wondering if it would be wise to ask for the test. Obviously, this is something you may want to discuss with your physician. This research is in its early stages. No one is certain that the people in this study whose cancer was treated early will actually live longer.
Lung cancer is among the deadliest of all cancers.
Not enough early cases have been followed so far. No one, at this point, knows how many cancers the CT scan failed to detect. That remains to be seen. As a practical matter, there aren't enough screening facili-ties and trained professionals to screen the 100 million current and former smokers in this country. Nevertheless, if you were a heavy smoker, or are still smoking, or if there's a history of lung cancer in your family, you may want to consider screening.