Fact: Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the United States.
Also a fact: It doesn’t need to be.
That’s why St. Tammany Health System in 2015 launched its ACR-accredited low-dose CT scan screening program as part of our ongoing prevention and early detection efforts.
“It’s really pretty simple: Low-dose CT scans save lives,” said Megan Broussard, the low-dose CT program coordinator at St. Tammany Health System’s only-in-the-region Care Continuum Center of Excellence, as named by the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer. “If lung cancer is detected early, as a stage one disease, the five-year survival rate is between 68 and 92 percent. If it’s left until stage four, you go to a 10 percent five-year survival rate at best.”
Fortunately, Broussard said, low-dose CT scans are quick and painless.
“There are no needles, no dyes, no fasting,” she said. “You even keep your regular clothes on, and – for those concerned with small spaces – your head never even goes through the machine at any point during the procedure.”
Scroll down to learn more about this life-saving program.