ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and LewisGale leaders are spreading awareness about getting low-dosage cancer screenings that can help patients learn if they have lung cancer.
According to the CDC, lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States.
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In 2020, 197,453 new lung cancers were reported and 136,084 people died from lung cancer, according to the CDC.
Nurses at LewisGale said that’s why it’s important to get checked.
“If we can catch cancer early, again looking at American Cancer Society, the 5-year survival rate for advanced cancers is about 5% if we can catch it early, we can get it above 60%,” Katherine Waltz, a registered nurse with Lewis Gale said.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends yearly screenings for people who have a 20-pack-year (smoking one pack of cigarettes per day for a year), smoke now or have quit within the last 15 years, or are between the ages of 50 and 80.
To learn more about lung cancer, statistics, screenings, and more, click here.