[HN Gopher] Smokers Should Be Screened for Lung Cancer-Even If T...
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       Smokers Should Be Screened for Lung Cancer-Even If They Quit Long
       Ago
        
       Author : Brajeshwar
       Score  : 7 points
       Date   : 2023-11-08 16:00 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
        
       | RationalDino wrote:
       | This ties to an important fact about how cancer works.
       | 
       | A cell has a long journey to becoming cancerous. It involves cell
       | damage that is imperfectly repaired. A cell once injured is
       | therefore liable to become cancer, but may not take the next step
       | for decades.
       | 
       | When you stop smoking, you stop injuring more cells. But the
       | injured ones are still there. You can think of them as like
       | little time bombs, waiting to go off. A process that is likely to
       | take decades. So even decades later, you should worry.
       | 
       | We convinced large numbers of people to stop smoking. Yay, us! We
       | told them that smoking causes cancer. We were right. But we
       | didn't go around advertising, "If you've been a smoker, you're
       | never getting rid of your increased risk." Because that would
       | have been demotivating.
       | 
       | Maybe we should have still been honest? Then my brother-in-law
       | wouldn't have been so shocked when he got lung cancer from a
       | habit that he had quit some 20 years earlier.
        
         | JohnFen wrote:
         | > But we didn't go around advertising, "If you've been a
         | smoker, you're never getting rid of your increased risk."
         | Because that would have been demotivating.
         | 
         | Honestly, learning this makes me regret quitting smoking a bit.
         | 
         | Just a bit, though, because the main risk with smoking isn't
         | cancer, it's emphysema.
        
       | pfdietz wrote:
       | A good reason for screening is the greatly increased viability of
       | treatments for non-small cell lung cancer. (Small cell, you're
       | still pretty much screwed.)
        
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       (page generated 2023-11-08 23:02 UTC)