Lung cancer mortality rates in the US, disparities, screening & education

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS: EPIDEMIOLOGY CLASS. LUNG CANCER

***Assignment

Discuss about: try to include most of these data

-The Mortality rate of Lung cancer by age (In the US).

Retrieved from: American Lung Association, 2018. Lung cancer Mortality. https://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/lung-cancer/resource-library/lung-cancer-fact-sheet.html

Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in both men and women in the U.S. In 1987, it surpassed breast cancer to become the leading cause of cancer deaths in women.¹
The number of deaths caused by lung cancer peaked at 159,292 in 2005 and has since decreased by 6.5 percent to 148,945 in 2016.¹
MUST INCLUDE IN PAPER: The age-adjusted death rate for lung cancer is higher for men (46.7 per 100,000 persons) than for women (31.9 per 100,000 persons). It is similar for blacks (40.0 per 100,000 persons) and whites (39.2 per 100,000 persons) overall. However, black men have a far higher age-adjusted lung cancer death rate than white men, while black and white women have similar rates.¹
Lung cancer is mostly a disease of the elderly. In 2015, 86 percent of those living with lung cancer were 60 years of age or older.
INCLUDE: In 2015, Kentucky had the highest age-adjusted lung cancer incidence rates in both men (105.6 per 100,000) and women (77.5 per 100,000). Utah had the lowest age-adjusted cancer incidence rates in both men and women (29.6 per 100,000 and 22.1 per 100,000, respectively).4 These state-specific rates were parallel to smoking prevalence rates.
Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide, accounting for 2.1 million new cases and 1.8 million deaths in 2018.5
The National Institutes of Health estimate that cancer care cost the U.S. an overall $147.5 billion in 2015, $13.4 billion of which is due to lung cancer.
More men are diagnosed with lung cancer each year, but more women live with the disease. The rate of new cases in 2015 showed that men develop lung cancer more often than women (57.8 and 45.9 per 100,000, respectively).³
Black men and women are more likely to develop and die from lung cancer than persons of any other racial or ethnic group. The age-adjusted lung cancer incidence rate among black men is approximately 30 percent higher than for white men, even though their overall exposure to cigarette smoke, the primary risk factor for lung cancer, is lower.^3,
Screening for individuals at high risk has the potential to dramatically improve lung cancer survival rates by finding the disease at an earlier stage when it is more likely to be curable. Early detection, by low-dose CT screening, can decrease lung cancer mortality by 14 to 20 percent among high-risk populations. About 8 million Americans qualify as high risk for lung cancer and are recommended to receive annual screening with low-dose CT scans. If half of these high risk individuals were screened, over 12,000 lung cancer deaths could be prevented

Smoking, a main cause of small cell and non-small cell lung cancer, contributes to 80 percent and 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in women and men, respectively. Men who smoke are 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer. Women are 13 times more likely, compared to never smokers. Between 2005 and 2010, an average of 130,659 Americans (74,300 men and 56,359 women) died of smoking-attributable lung cancer each year. Exposure to secondhand smoke causes approximately 7,330 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers every year. Nonsmokers have a 20 to 30 percent greater chance of developing lung cancer if they are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work.

Discuss Briefly about: (Moore…2017 article)

- Regional disparities in lung cancer mortality within the US, community-level factors that may explain lung cancer mortality clusters. US counties with high lung cancer mortality, county-level characteristics associated with lung cancer mortality − exposure to particulate pollution matter. (Moore…2017)… “high-high” lung cancer mortality cluster counties were located in the southern United States. …found that lung cancer mortality is higher among people with lower SES and in the mid-south region (containing the states of Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee) similar to our lung cancer mortality belt (Moore…2017)

Similarly to the counties located in the western region of the lung cancer mortality belt (near the Mississippi river), other studies have shown that the Mississippi valley has higher rates of coronary heart disease ^[47]. Likewise, Moore et al. (2016) found that there were sepsis mortality clusters in the Mississippi valley and Central Appalachian regions similar to the regions affected by high lung cancer mortality in this study ^[23]. These results further illuminate the fact that the current lung cancer mortality belt is a region within the United States that is representative of poorer health outcomes due to increased poverty risk and poorer access to health. Areas of greater unemployment and lower SES are subsequently victim to greater health disparities that alternatively perpetuate cultural patterns that further reduce access to healthcare and opportunities for sustainable disease prevention ^[48]. As a result, it is ever more important that US policy focuses on increasing employment opportunities and affordable healthcare for individuals throughout the US, specifically focusing on rural populations ^[49,50].

- Furthermore, while smoking is a pertinent risk factor for lung cancer mortality, reductions in both smoking and air pollution seem warranted due to the deleterious effects of both on lung cancer mortality.

We found that there was a significantly higher prevalence of adult smoking in clustered counties, thus indicating that smoking remains a key component in the risk of lung cancer mortality ^[70]. However, while smoking prevalence remains an important contributor, another cause for concern is the association seen between counties with a greater pollution burden and lung cancer mortalityclustering.

*Particulate pollution matter is a modifiable risk factor that can be reduced by reduction in chemical waste, combustion byproducts from industrial and agricultural facilities, and emissions from motor vehicles. Thus, to reduce the burden of lung cancer mortality in the United States, both urban and rural areas should consider minimizing air pollution

3. Lastly discuss about the crucial role of the healthcare provider for educating about risk factors for lung cancer, screening high risk populations (using low dose CT, Computed tomography) and referring patients to smoking cessation programmes

(local health officials to implement targeted prevention and treatment strategies where they are needed most, ultimately contributing to a reduction in the disparity in lung cancer mortality rates (higher incidence in blacks than whites, poverty regions, regional disparities)

PLEASE USE MY REFERENCES, I’m attaching all the articles. If you want to use an extra reference, it must be scholarly, peer reviewed article. Please include DOI numbers on the reference page (It’s required in APA). References MUST be scholarly journal articles (Nothing from conferences, other text books online, goggle, .com).
This assignment is for the DNP class and the grading is rigorous including grammar and APA style.

Thank you and let me know if you have any question

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