Lung cancer kills more than 150,000 Americans every year, and when it's diagnosed has a big impact on survival.
This Lung Cancer Awareness Month the American Lung Association has partnered up with the Ad Council to encourage those at particular risk to get screened using a relatively new non-invasive and painless technology.
Their new public service announcement targets former smokers, 55 and older.Â
The low-dose CT scan detects lung cancer in the early stages, often before there are any symptoms, when the disease is more treatable.
Â
"If everybody who qualified got this scan, it would save about 48,000 lives a year," says the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Dr. Jacobb Sands.
Â
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths. Â Less than 20-percent of those diagnosed are alive after five years, but for the 16-percent whose cases are caught early the survival rate improves dramatically.Â