So far there is not lung cancer screening test that has been shown to prevent people from dying of this disease. The use of chest x-rays and sputum cytology (checking phlegm under the microscope to find cancer cells) has been tested for several years. The studies, which have been recently updated, have concluded that these tests could not find many lung cancers early enough to improve a person’s chance for a cure. For this reason, lung cancer screening is not a routine practice for the general public or even for people at increased risk, such as smokers.

Recently, a new x-ray technique called spiral or helical low dose CT scanning has been successful in detecting early lung cancers in smokers and former smokers. But it has not yet been proven if this technique will lower the chances of dying from lung cancer. One major problem with this test is that it finds a lot of abnormalities that turn out not to be cancer. This leads to a lot of unnecessary testing and even surgery.

The ACS recommends that, as much as possible, people who were smokers, are current smokers, have been exposed to secondhand smoke, or have worked around materials that increase the risk for lung cancer, be aware of their continuing lung cancer risk.

My father smoke, not much, and worked in a smoke full atmosphere. He died at 46. The first diagnosis was by an X-ray, but that was 34 years ago.