WEST VIRGINIA West Virginia ranks below average in lung cancer screening rates and has the highest smoking rate in the nation, according to the American Lung Association's 2024 “State of Lung Cancer” report.
The report states that 13.5 percent of West Virginians at high risk for lung cancer were screened in 2022, slightly below the national average of sixteen percent. This placed the state thirty-ninth among all states for screening. Early screening can potentially identify lung cancer at a stage where it is more treatable. Elizabeth Hensil, Director of Advocacy in West Virginia and Pennsylvania for the American Lung Association, calls it a simple procedure, involving a low-dose CT scan to detect suspicious cells in the lungs.
Hensil says West Virginia's high rate of new lung cancer cases is partly due to a lack of public education about lung cancer and screening. She argued that annual screenings are critical for individuals at high risk, defined as adults aged fifty to eighty who have smoked one pack of cigarettes per day for twenty years or two packs per day for ten years.
She also pointed to two things that the state legislature could do to help with the rate of new diagnoses.
"Increased funding for tobacco cessation and control," Hensil said. "As well as passing legislation that would require insurance companies to cover biomarker testing."
Biomarker testing, according to Hensil, is a tool that helps doctors determine the best treatment options for lung cancer patients, such as targeted therapies, rather than relying solely on chemotherapy or radiation. Currently, West Virginia is one of thirty-one states without any insurance coverage requirements for this testing.
The report noted that the rate of new lung cancer cases in West Virginia has decreased by twelve percent over the past five years but remains significantly higher than the national average. In West Virginia, the rate is 76.5 per 100,000 people, compared to the national rate of 53.6.
The report also provided data on racial disparities in lung cancer outcomes. Among Black West Virginians, the five-year survival rate was 20.5 percent, compared to 24.5 percent among white residents. Rates of early diagnosis and surgical treatment for Black individuals with lung cancer in the state were similar to national averages. The percentage of Black patients in the Mountain State who did not receive any treatment was 17.4 percent, compared to 22.7 percent nationally.
West Virginia continues to report the highest smoking rate in the nation, at twenty-one percent, significantly exceeding the national rate of 12.9 percent. Tobacco use remains the leading cause of lung cancer.
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