Calls for lung cancer screening programme in Santiago de Compostela

A REGIONAL forum will take place as part of the Congress of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) in Santiago de Compostela to discuss the urgent call for a lung cancer screening program in Spain.
Spain sits in a “privileged position” with its national health system and should be “a pioneer” in the field according to Doctor Luis Seijo.
Worldwide, lung cancer has the highest mortality rate of all the different strains of the disease, higher than colon, prostate and breast all put together.
One of the main reasons for the high rate is that the disease is often caught in the advanced stages and therefore too late to effectively treat.
Spanish medical authorities are taking into account reports from the American National Lung Screening Trail that suggest that an efficient screening program will reduce the mortality rate by over 26 per cent.
The largest cause of lung cancer in Spain continues to be tobacco smoke, however there is also a strong percentage that is caused by burning of biomass, wood burning stoves, air pollution and radon gas.
A large concern is air pollution, contributed by diesel car emissions and industrial pollution as there has been a direct link between the two causes and an increased number of asthma suffers especially in young children.