Carcinoid Tumors Prevention

Lung cancer remains  a highly preventable  disease because 90% of lung cancers occur in smokers or former smokers. The best way  to prevent lung cancer  is to not smoke. 

• Cigarette  smoking is highly addictive,  and quitting often proves to be difficult. However, smoking rates have recently decreased in North America and in  other parts of  the world.
• Health-care workers play an important role in identifying smokers and helping them quit. 
• Many products such as nicotine gum, nicotine sprays, nicotine inhalers,  and other types  of medications  have been successfully used  to help  people trying  to quit smoking. 
• Minimizing exposure to passive smoking is also an effective preventive measure. 
• Using  a home radon test kit can identify and allow correction of increased radon levels  in the home, which can  also cause lung cancers. 
• Smokers who use a combination  of supplemental nicotine, group therapy,  and behavioral training show a significant drop in smoking rates. 

• Currently,  the American Cancer Society does not recommend routine chest x-ray screening  for lung cancer. What this means is that many health-insurance plans do  not cover screening chest x-rays  or CT scans. 
• Periodic chest x-rays  may be appropriate for current or former smokers. Discuss  the pros and cons  of this approach with  a health-care provider. 
• Low-dose CT scans  have shown great potential in detecting early stage lung  cancer and therefore surgical cure. This procedure requires  a special type of CT scanner (spiral CT) and has been shown to be an effective tool  for the identification  of small  lung cancers  in smokers and former smokers. However, it has  not yet been proven whether the use of this technique actually saves lives  or lowers  the risk of death from  lung cancer. Trials  are underway  to further determine the utility  of spiral CT scans  in screening for lung  cancer.