Resolved question:
Hello
I am a 29 year old healthy male. I have recently quit smoking in January. I have a approx 6 pack year history.
I quit because I became very paranoid about lung cancer, to ease my concerns I had a physical , blood work and chest X-ray completed in January. All test were good and/or negative.
I have no major cough and or congestion symtoms at this time.
At this time is there a thing else I can do to attempt to screen for early lung cancer? Would a yearly cheat X-ray help? Or is there something else I can do?
Submitted:
4 Days
Category:
Pulmonologist
Hello,
Thank you for your query at DoctorSpring.com
I understand your concern.
In your case there is not a lot of exposure, so if you quit smoking completely then the minor changes that happen to the lungs will completely reverse.
It is very difficult to predict as there are few people smoking more than 30 years old patientand still have shown no changes, while some with a 10 year history has shown significant lung changes.
But anyway I appreciate you have decided to do this change, and just do not go back to smoking, you should be fine.
You can go for annual chest x-rays and that should be enough for monitoring purpose.
Hope this was helpful,
Feel free to discuss further,
Regards.
Thank you for the quick reply. Since I had the X-ray completed this past January should I hold off until next year to complete another ?
Also I'm not sure if this is your area of expertise but I find that once a month when I partake in drinking alchohal I really feel the need to smoke. Would using something like a vaporizer be harmful? Again I would just be using it once a month at most.
Yes you do not need any further testing this year.
No using vaporizer once a month is not harmful, if you can for sure limit it to once a month.
Even for alcohol, please try to limit the number of drinks, as you know alcohol is a major killer itself.
Regards.
If smoking had caused significant damage would it of been visible on the X-ray?
I recently read about a bronchoscopy , would I benefit from a procedure like that?
Yes, it would be visible on x-ray.
Also you will have symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, e.t.c
You do not need bronchoscopy.
You just need to ensure you are not smoking anymore. Your exposure is not that significantly high to be so worried.
Regards.
Yes, it would be visible on x-ray.
Also you will have symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, e.t.c
You do not need bronchoscopy.
You just need to ensure you are not smoking anymore. Your exposure is not that significantly high to be so worried.
Regards.
Thank you, I had just read that the beginning stages of lung cancer are usually symptomless so I wanted to rule out any possibility.