130,000 Amsterdam residents will receive an invitation by letter this week to conduct a pilot population study on lung cancer. It concerns all men and women between the ages of 60 and 79 who live in the city. The aim of the study is to detect cancer before symptoms appear.
This is what Erasmus MC . says AT5. The Rotterdam Hospital coordinates European research, which is also conducted in Germany, France, Spain and Italy. A total of 400,000 Dutch people will receive invitations. The Amsterdam AVL Center for Early Diagnosis, part of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, is the first of three sites in the Netherlands where the research is being conducted. This will happen later in Belethoven and Friesland.
Searching for smokers
A total of nine thousand participants are sought for study in the Netherlands, and it is expected that about three thousand of them will undergo study in Amsterdam. A questionnaire was included with the invitation. This is checked to see who is eligible to study and who is not. This has to do with a person’s smoking history, among other things.
“We’re looking for people who have smoked for a long time during their life, for example at least one pack a day for 25 years, or at least two packs a day for 15 years,” according to Erasmus MC. “People who stopped smoking after 2005 but smoked a lot before quitting are also eligible to participate.” After this screening, interested parties will hear if they can actually participate.
CT scan
The research itself, then: all participants are divided in advance into two groups. Each person has a CT scan of the lungs, and if no abnormalities are found, two more CT scans (group 1) or one CT scan (group 2) will be done later. In this way it is investigated how often a CT scan should be performed. If abnormalities are visible, the person is referred to a pulmonologist for additional examination.
According to Erasmus MC, screening the population for lung cancer could prevent thousands of deaths annually. In the Netherlands, lung cancer is detected every year in approximately 14,000 people 10,000 Dutch people suffer from this disease each year. It often takes a long time before lung cancer causes symptoms and is often difficult to treat. “The aim of this study is to detect cancer before symptoms appear.” Research shows that early detection of lung cancer can reduce mortality by 25 percent,” according to Erasmus MC.
