Speaking to Lusa days before the ceremony marking World Cancer Day, on Wednesday, Cristina Bárbara, director of the Chest Department at ULS Santa Maria, explained that the unit is ready for this screening, which still needs the green light for financing.
“We are ready to start this month”, said the person in charge, explaining the various steps that the unit had to take, since 2024, to meet all the necessary criteria to be able to have a pilot project to screen for lung cancer, which kills the most in Europe.
The screening will be done with low dose CT (Computerized Axial Tomography) – subjecting people to low radiation – and the unit will have the capacity to do 30 per week, with users being called in “several rounds” and everything will be done in activities outside normal working hours.
Cristina Bárbara highlighted the importance of lung cancer screening, remembering that with low-dose CT scans one ends up finding “findings” that could indicate other problems and, in this way, be seen by specialist doctors and treated in advance.
He also said that these screenings, by allowing the disease to be detected at an early stage, make surgical treatment possible.
“In this way, mortality can be reduced, not only from lung cancer, but from other cancers”, explained the specialist, adding that throughout the screening program the user is offered the possibility of an anti-smoking consultation.
The specialist recalled the stigma that exists among smokers and clarified: “Often, smokers blame themselves and that is not what we want. We want them to stop smoking and, above all, to be able to identify the growth of a neoplasm at a stage where it is subject to curative treatment”.
The screening in this unit will only cover users of ULS Santa Maria, who may be sent by primary health care, identified through electronic processes – which have information on smoking habits – and then invited by letter or even be proposed by ULS pulmonologists.
To highlight the effectiveness and importance of this screening, Cristina Bárbara recalled that, according to international literature, it is necessary to screen between 100 and 150 people to prevent death from lung cancer, numbers that rise to between 400 and 500 in colon cancer and to 700 to 1,700 in breast cancer.
“Which means it is highly profitable”, he added, remembering that early detection, through screening, allows a reduction in mortality of between 20 and 25%.
ULS is part of the European consortium EUCanScreen, whose main objective is to ensure high performance of cancer screening programs in all Member States of the European Union.
In addition to this ULS, the one in Santo António (Porto) is also part of this consortium and is part of the group of pilot projects for lung cancer screening. Cascais is another of the units where a pilot project is planned to start.
In parallel, he explained, a platform will have to be created to record data, which already exists for other oncological screenings in Portugal, but not for the new screenings announced: lung, prostate and stomach.
According to the regulations of the Directorate-General for Health, lung cancer screenings cover people between 55 and 74 years old, smokers and ex-smokers who have, for example, smoked a pack of tobacco/day for 20 years.
Lung cancer is the fourth most common malignant tumor in Portugal, with around 5,000 new cases being detected annually and around 4,000 people dying from this disease. Smoking is the main risk factor.
