Early care key for lung cancer

[Anchor]

Lung cancer, which has the highest mortality rate among cancers, requires prompt treatment.

It has been found that patients who are diagnosed with lung cancer and excessively visit multiple hospitals due to uncertainty about treatment actually have lower survival rates.

This is a report by medical correspondent Park Kwang-sik.

[Report]

A man in his 60s was diagnosed with lung cancer last November.

He visited more than three hospitals over two months in search of a renowned surgeon.

[Kim ○○/Lung cancer patient: "(After the initial diagnosis) my children were surprised and asked if it would be okay to just go to one hospital... Shouldn't we go to a big hospital to confirm and have the surgery done safely there?"]

This excessive 'hospital pilgrimage' is also referred to as 'doctor shopping' as patients seek out doctors like they are shopping.

Is this really helpful for patients?

[Lee So-young/Professor of Thoracic Surgery at Gachon University Gil Medical Center: "I hope they start treatment as soon as possible, but that's not what they are thinking. When lung cancer is diagnosed, it is obviously a huge deal."]

A research team from Gachon University analyzed 280,000 lung cancer patients in South Korea from 2009 to 2021, and found that patients who visited 4 to 5 hospitals more than 10 times before receiving their first treatment had a 12% lower 5-year survival rate compared to those who visited one hospital once.

[Moon Jong-yoon/Professor of Preventive Medicine at Gachon University: "Those who visit more than 10 times tend to visit 4.5 or more medical institutions. Early treatment is crucial, and they may miss the golden time for lung cancer treatment..."]

In contrast, patients who visited 1 to 2 hospitals between 2 to 9 times had a 30% higher survival rate compared to those who visited one hospital once.

While hearing opinions from other doctors can be helpful for treatment, excessively wandering between multiple hospitals can delay treatment and become detrimental.

Especially in aggressive lung cancer cases, even a slight delay in treatment can lead to metastasis and a rapid deterioration of the condition.

In the case of lung cancer, the United States recommends starting treatment within 6 weeks of diagnosis, while the UK and South Korea recommend starting within a month.

This is KBS News, Park Kwang-sik.