Access and management of lung cancer patients should be streamlined (pulmonologist)

Access and management of lung cancer patients in the Romanian healthcare system should be made more efficient by reducing the time between suspicion, diagnosis, treatment, pulmonologist Beatrice Mahler said on Friday, in a message delivered on August 1, World Lung Cancer Day.

"We still need to streamline and develop systemically and not from 'doctor to doctor', the collaboration between pulmonologist, radiologist, oncologist, thoracic surgeon, family physicians or other specialist doctors when the patient has several comorbidities in order to ease the patient's 'path' in the Romanian healthcare system. Let's not forget in the case of the cancer patient the importance of the development of palliative care, which in many cases is missing or insufficient, which leads to the deepening of the suffering of the person with lung cancer at advanced stages and to an even greater burden on relatives and the importance of developing home care medical services in cases of lung cancer", Mahler wrote in a social media post.

In her opinion, there is a need, at regional level, for quick access to screening services for early diagnosis, for the development of multidisciplinary specialised centres, for quick access to treatment and for the creation of an optimal standardised route in the system for the person with suspected lung cancer.

According to the doctor, the screening criteria followed by many countries establish that any smoker over 55 years of age having smoked more than one pack a day, for 20 years, even if he has quit for less than 15 years, can undergo a chest CT scan with a low dose of radiation.

Other categories that should be monitored are people exposed to high levels of pollution in the air they breathe, and also family members where there is an increased incidence of lung cancer.

"It is useful to go to the doctor if: you have been coughing for more than a month or in the last month the character of the cough has changed, you have an involuntary significant weight loss and you have no appetite, you get tired with minimal effort, you have chest pain for several days in a row, you have haemoptysis, in other words, you spit blood when you cough," wrote Mahler .