Lung cancer kills more people in a year than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined. But the good news is that with new life-saving screening and treatment options, lung cancer death rates have been on the decline since 1990. Central Maine Healthcare is committed to reducing your odds of getting this disease.
About Lung Cancer
Lung cancer starts when lung cells begin to grow out of control. There are four main types of this cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the more common of the two. It grows more slowly and is less likely to spread. The other is small cell lung cancer (SCLC). It progresses quickly and is likely to spread beyond the lungs.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women, mostly attributed to smoking. What makes it especially dangerous is that lung cancer symptoms often don’t appear until the disease has reached advanced stages. Fortunately, new screenings can now catch the condition in its earliest and most treatable stages—saving many more lives.
Prevention
The number one way to prevent lung cancer is to quit smoking for good. Smoking causes four out of five lung cancer deaths but if you quit, your odds of getting the disease begin to decline. Your provider can help you decide which strategy for quitting will be best for you. And for additional support, you can contact the Maine QuitLink for free tools and resources
Detection and Diagnosis
Lung cancer can usually be cured if it’s detected early. Unfortunately most lung cancers are not caught until they are advanced. At Central Maine Healthcare we’re fighting to change that. We offer low-dose computed tomography (also known as LDCT). It’s a fast, painless way to detect lung cancer when it’s still in an early stage.
If you’re over 55 and have a history of heavy smoking, don’t wait another day. Schedule your screening at a location near you.
Personalized Treatment Plans
More than 95% of suspicious areas found during screenings are benign. But if you are diagnosed with cancer, our Central Maine Comprehensive Cancer Center is ready to help you fight the disease. We can target tumors with image-guided radiation, which focuses on the tumor while sparing healthy tissue. And promising advances in immunotherapy are helping lung cancer patients live longer. Your cancer care team will work with you to create a personalized treatment plan using the best therapies for your specific cancer.
Support
We’re committed to providing you all the education, tools and resources you and your loved ones need to manage a cancer diagnosis. You’ll find a full range of free or low-cost cancer support services—from education to rehabilitation, nutritional to spiritual counseling, support groups and more to meet your needs.
Screenings and Diagnosis
The goal of lung cancer screening is to save lives. Central Maine Healthcare wants to make it as easy as possible for anyone in our community who is at high risk for the disease to be screened. The test takes only 10 minutes and is covered by most insurance. And if you are uninsured, we can offer a reduced rate. It’s a small price to pay to catch this disease before it becomes deadly.
Please contact our Lung Navigator at 207-753-3954 to learn more about lung cancer screening. Or find a lung specialist anytime online.
Why Lung Cancer Screening?
With lung cancer, symptoms usually don’t appear until the disease has advanced, which is why a screening is so important for high-risk patients. Central Maine Healthcare offers low-dose CT scans, a groundbreaking new tool that can catch lung cancer before symptoms show. During this simple test, an X-ray machine scans the body, using low doses of radiation to make detailed pictures of the lung. It’s safe, painless and has proven to reduce the risk of lung cancer death by up to 20%.
Are You at High Risk for Lung Cancer?
Low-dose CT lung scans are recommended for the following groups of people who are at high risk for lung cancer:
- People ages 50−80
- Who have at least a 20-pack-per-year smoking history
- People who still smoke or have quit within the past 15 years
What is Low-Dose CT Scanning?
During this simple test, an X-ray machine scans the entire body, using low doses of radiation to make detailed pictures of the lung. This allows our providers to detect even the smallest tumors, and offers a variety of benefits for patients at high-risk of lung cancer:
- Effective: Studies show that low-dose CT is four times more likely to pick up a mass than a traditional chest X-ray. It has also proven to be at least as effective as mammography and colonoscopy screenings in saving lives.
- Safe: CT scanning for lung cancer uses up to 90% less radiation than a conventional chest CT scan.
- Painless: It’s non-invasive and only takes a few minutes to complete.
- Convenient: CT scans are offered at our three locations: Central Maine Medical Center, Bridgton Hospital and Rumford Hospital.
If we find anything abnormal, our dedicated team will arrange follow-up testing and, if needed, work closely with you to create a personalized cancer treatment plan to help return you to good health.
Care You Can Trust
The CMMC Lung Cancer Screening Center is one of only seven hospitals in the state of Maine to be officially designated as a Lung Cancer Screening Center. So you can be confident your lung cancer screening will be safe and effective.
Treatment
Until recently, a diagnosis of lung cancer usually meant a poor prognosis, especially since lung cancer symptoms don’t appear until the disease has progressed. But with new early detection tools and innovative treatment options, survival rates continue to rise.
Central Maine Healthcare is staffed by experienced lung cancer specialists. Together, this dedicated team—including board-certified pulmonologists, thoracic surgeons, radiation and medical oncologists, specialized nurses and more—will work with you to create the best possible treatment plan.
We specialize in minimizing pain and side effects, plus access to a full range of cancer support services, so you can focus on healing.
Surgery
Surgery is performed to remove the lung tumor, as well as nearby lymph nodes in the chest to check for signs of cancer. It is typically used for early stage lung cancer, when the cancer has not spread, and in some cases, may completely cure the disease. Following surgery, additional treatments such as radiation therapy or chemotherapy may be used to lower the risk of the cancer returning.
Radiation Therapy
Central Maine Healthcare uses the most advanced technology available to target lung tumors with extreme precision. Treatments include intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), which focus high-dose radiation directly on the tumor, while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. We also treat lung cancer from the inside with HDR brachytherapy, which delivers radiation from small implants located close to the tumor.
Medical Therapy
We also offer the latest and most effective chemotherapy options. Chemotherapy has shown to improve both the length and quality of life for people with lung cancer of all stages.
Other medical oncology services include:
- Targeted Therapy: We now look for changes in lung cancer genes that can be targeted with oral (pill) treatments. These gene mutations can be targeted by drug therapy. Having this information helps us develop a treatment plan that’s specifically designed to fight your specific tumor. Most targeted therapies are oral medications that can be taken at home. They can spare patients hair loss, nausea, low blood counts or increased risk for infection. They are also more convenient and can enhance quality of life compared to standard treatments.
- Immunotherapy: Recent FDA-approved drug therapies give people the ability to fight lung cancer using the body’s natural defense mechanism: the immune system. Immunotherapy works by making hidden cancer cells visible to the immune system, allowing white blood cells to fight and kill the cancer. Studies have shown immunotherapy drugs to be well-tolerated with minimal side effects, and when combined with more traditional treatments, have doubled lung cancer survival rates.