UC Davis Health offering free lung cancer screenings this weekend
SACRAMENTO — Lung cancer claims over 120,000 lives per year and a simple scan can increase your odds of survival exponentially.
To highlight Lung Cancer Awareness Month, here is one man's story and his message that could save lives.
Bill Castro smoked for 35 years but hasn't touched a cigarette since the 1990s. Still, when he was at a doctor's appointment earlier this year, his daughter insisted he get a lung scan.
"That's when they discovered a nodule in my right lung," Castro said.
Dr. David Tom Cook is with UC Davis Health and said a simple screen can save lives.
"Seventy-five percent of individuals who are diagnosed with lung cancer in this country are diagnosed in advanced stage," Dr. Cook said. "And only 25% are diagnosed in early stages — stage 1 and stage 2 — which has the best chance for cure."
During Lung Cancer Awareness Month, UC Davis has been offering free screenings for eligible patients. That's people between 50 and 80 years old, and people who have smoked 20 "pack years." You may be asking what that is.
"So what you do is take the packs per day that you smoked times the number of years and that's your pack years," Dr. Cook said. "So if you smoked two packs per day for 10 years, that's 20 pack years."
Castro starts treatment next week, and for 91, he looks pretty darn good. However, he doesn't want others to wait that long to get checked out.
"If in doubt at all, even if you're not in doubt, take steps to find out if you have any cancer and then let the doctors figure out how to get rid of it," he said.
UC Davis Health is offering free scans on Saturday, November 9 to eligible patients.
