{"id":17556,"date":"2022-11-20T22:47:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-20T14:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/?p=17556"},"modified":"2025-11-17T15:28:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:28:54","slug":"what-is-your-risk-of-developing-lung-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/what-is-your-risk-of-developing-lung-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"What is your risk of developing lung cancer?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in Hong Kong, causing more than 4,000 deaths in 2019. While early detection allows early treatment, there are usually no symptoms in the early stages of lung cancer, and unfortunately diagnosis often occurs when the cancer is at a late stage. But this does not mean that there is no way to catch lung cancer in its early stages. International studies have shown that low-dose computed tomography (low-dose CT) can effectively identify early-stage lung cancer patients, in turn reducing overall lung cancer mortality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While many\npeople have heard of CT scans, low-dose CT may not be as well known. Low-dose\nCT is a non-invasive method of medical imaging emitting just one-tenth the dose\nof radiation of a traditional CT. Low-dose CT is able to capture multiple cross-sectional\nimages of the body with greater clarity than normal X-ray scans, allowing even\ntiny lung nodules to be visualised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-670x446.jpg 670w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-480x320.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-390x260.jpg 390w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-285x190.jpg 285w\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17433 lazyload\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17433\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-670x446.jpg 670w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-480x320.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-390x260.jpg 390w, https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/senior-woman-undergoing-mri-scanner-while-doctor-is-supervising-procedure_637285-4576-285x190.jpg 285w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/noscript><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A\nlarge-scale study in the United States has shown that in comparison to regular\nchest X-rays, lung cancer screening by low-dose CT may reduce lung cancer\nmortality by up to 20%. However, in recent years, the number of non-smokers diagnosed\nwith lung cancer has been on the rise. Globally, around 15-20% of males and\nmore than 50% of females with lung cancer are non-smokers. This raises the\nquestion: is there value in screening non-smokers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To date, the medical community has not published guidelines for lung cancer screening in non-smokers, but certain Asian countries and regions such as South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan have already conducted a number of clinical studies in recent years. A Taiwanese study found that among more than 12,000 non-smokers who have at least one known risk factor for lung cancer, 313 were found to have lung cancer, with 96.5% being early-stage, showing that lung cancer screening is capable of diagnosing early-stage lung cancer among non-smokers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Low-dose CT, though effective, is still not a perfect technique due to the possibility of false positives, which may result in patients being exposed to unnecessary and therefore potentially harmful treatment. The possibility of false negatives, on the other hand, may cause a necessary treatment to be delayed. Therefore, it is particularly important to first understand your risk of developing lung cancer before deciding to undergo screening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source text: Hong Kong Integrated Oncology Centre\n(HKIOC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If a close relative is stricken with cancer, does the patient\u2019s family also need to undergo cancer screening? Breast cancer, ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer are common cases of hereditary cancers. If the cancer genetic test result is positive, what should be your next steps? Let our doctor walk you through this!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1745],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-17556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lung-cancer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17556"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24746,"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17556\/revisions\/24746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17556"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hkioc.com.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}