Diagnostic screening programs help catch cancer, abnormalities or other diseases before they reach an advanced stage, saving lives and healthcare costs. Screening programs include, lung, breast, prostate, and cervical cancer, among many others.
In conjunction with prevention efforts, the introduction of screening examinations has resulted in a reduction of nearly 6 million cancer-related deaths since 1975.
Breast density is most often discussed within the context of cancer risk, but new research suggests that it also could be used as a marker of cardiometabolic health.
The newly cleared offering, AutoChamber, was designed with opportunistic screening in mind. It can evaluate many different kinds of CT images, including those originally gathered to screen patients for lung cancer.
That number is expected to grow even more in the coming years, as the exam serves as a noninvasive alternative to colonoscopy, while also providing more accurate results than stool tests.
Despite kicking their initial habit, these individuals remain at risk of developing lung cancer due to their history of smoking cigarettes, current use of e-cigarettes, or both, experts caution.
The WISEWOMAN program proved to be a useful intervention to screen low-income, uninsured women and offer them risk reduction counseling to improve blood pressure, diet and physical activity.
CT calcium scoring provides valuable evaluations of intermediate-risk patients in addition to making good business sense for hospitals. Nauman Mushtaq, MD, an interventional cardiologist with Northwestern, shared his own experience with this technology.