Home Langhorne-Levittown Times St. Mary offers low-dose CT scans to detect lung cancer earlier

St. Mary offers low-dose CT scans to detect lung cancer earlier

Early detection can mean better outcomes

Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic hospitals, including Langhorne’s St. Mary Medical Center, offer low-dose CT screening for patients with high risk for lung cancer.

LDCT screenings detect unusual changes in the lungs before a high risk individual shows any signs of having lung cancer. The procedure is quick and painless, detects smaller tumors than regular X-rays, and requires a radiation dose only slightly higher than traditional X-rays.

Health insurance usually covers annual LDCT scans for people with a high risk for lung cancer, which includes:

– Current smokers or those who have quit smoking within the last 15 years
– Those with a smoking history of 30 or more “pack years,” calculated by multiplying the number of packs smoked per day by the number of years smoking
– Those who are between 55 and 80 years old

These vital screenings can lead to earlier lung cancer detection and improve health outcomes for communities.

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