Although the number of smokers in Greece is diminishing, the country remains, with Bulgaria and Cyprus, among the three countries with the largest number of smokers in Europe. At the same time, despite the advances made in treatment, lung cancer remains one of the most fatal forms of cancer, with only 2 out of 10 people diagnosed with the disease surviving for more than 5 years. In order to meet this challenge, public healthcare is increasingly focussed on early diagnosis, as well as persuading people to abandon the habit.

A conference entitled “Preventing lung cancer, cutting out smoking – screening” was held by the Hellenic Thoracic Society (EPE) in the Mikis Theodorakis theatre in Chania on Saturday 4th February to mark World Cancer Day. The event was held in cooperation with the Municipality of Chania, the Pulmonary Clinic of the University of Crete and the Association of Pulmonologists of the Regional Unit of Chania.

Announcing the conference, the mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis said: “On a day of great symbolic importance, World Cancer Day, scientists from all over Greece will engage in discussion and inform their colleagues about the importance of screening, and also of the new approaches to lung cancer prevention. We welcome the conducting of the conference in Chania, since lung cancer continues to be by far the major cause of fatality among cancers, a statistic which could be reduced by timely and accurate diagnosis by scientists and systematic public information.”

“A structured national prevention strategy is an important priority in the fight against lung cancer,” the EPE said in a statement to mark World Cancer Day. In its scientific work, the Society emphasises the critical importance of adopting screening using thoracic low-dose CT scans in conjunction with anti-smoking campaigns among the high-risk groups of the population.

The reduction of smoking in Greece and the establishment of screening are key aspects of such a national strategy, according to the EPE’s president, Stelios Loukidis, professor of Pulmonology at the Kapodistrian University of Athens, who stresses the importance of forward planning in lung cancer prevention.

“Lung cancer is a contemporary plague, 90 per cent associated with the habit of smoking,” he says. “Screening using thoracic low-dose CT scans (LDCT) and the simultaneous stopping of smoking constitute two tools which must be correctly planned and applied in the relevant population group to give hope and life. The EPE will shortly have ready an action plan relating to these two elements.”

“Scientific research shows that the use of thoracic LDCT in a screening programme really saves lives,” says the EPE’s general secretary Eleftherios Zervas, director of the National Heath Service’s 7th Pulmonary Clinic and Asthma Centre at the “Sotiria” General Hospital for Pulmonary Diseases in Athens. Mr Zervas notes that if lung cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, and before it spreads, there is a greater chance of successful treatment, adding: “The EPE is in the final stage of issuing guidelines for the timely diagnosis of lung cancer – in collaboration with the Radiological and Thoracic Surgery Societies – in order to establish a structured and scientifically-based national strategy for lung cancer screening, always in conjunction with programmes for stopping smoking.”

The need for us to breathe air which is free of carcinogenic chemical substances, but also of inhaled viruses and other microorganisms, may prove to be humanity’s most important concern in the coming decades, according to the EPE’s vice-president, Nikolaos Tzanakis, Professor of Pulmonology at the Medical School of the University of Crete.

“This need relates not only to smokers or the inhabitants of large cities with atmospheric pollution, but to all of us, whether we work in compromised professional environments or have increased intra-household pollution,” he says. “The effects of such exposures on health, even for non-smokers, will be noticeable. Thus everyone, and particularly those who work professionally indoors or in work environments burdened with volatile carcinogenic chemicals, should be subjected to specific programmes of screening and timely diagnosis of pulmonary diseases.”

Miltiades Markatos, president of the Chania Pulmonologists’ Association, explains that pulmonologists who work in Primary Healthcare establishments are the health professionals who have the most immediate contact with smokers or former smokers, whether with or without respiratory system symptoms.

“The pulmonologist has the training and the capacity to inform the smoker of the advantages of cutting out smoking and how this can significantly improve their life expectancy, and to enrol them in an anti-smoking clinic. The pulmonologist can also manage the stages of timely diagnosis and direct the patient accordingly,” he says.

(Hellenic Thoracic Society press release, Haniotika Nea)