Lung cancer screening organized in a shopping center on the Côte d’Azur

While tobacco-free month began on November 1, the Nice University Hospital teams want to raise awareness and detect lung cancer as early as possible. Because tobacco is responsible for 75,000 deaths each year in France.

On this Saturday afternoon, the image is funny: a large “lung cancer screening” sign is placed in front of the tobacco dealer in this shopping arcade in La Trinité (Alpes-Maritimes).

In the aisle, among the shopping carts, a pulmonologist in a white coat calls out to passers-by. “Hello Madam, do you know that we organize a screening afternoon if you have smoked in your life?“

“I’m being treated for that already!“, the customer replies before going back to do her shopping.

Among the shopping carts, Charles-Hugo Marquette, pulmonologist at Nice University Hospital, targets men and women over 50, smokers or former smokers. For him, it is vital to do prevention to fight lung cancer early.

“If you do not screen, lung cancer, three times out of four, is diagnosed at an advanced stage“, explains the doctor.

If you do screening, three times out of four, it is detected at the stage of a small olive. And there, it’s very easy to treat!

Charles-Hugo Marquette, pulmonologist at Nice University Hospital

at France 3 Côte d’Azur

When the arrest works, the passerby is taken to the shopping mall laboratory for a pre-diagnosis. The test is free, quick and painless.

Majid is 40 years old, he is in theory too young to take the test. But he wants to reassure himself because he “smokes almost a pack a day“. “I know it’s risky, I’m trying to quit smoking, but hey… It’s a good thing to get tested, just in case.“

“Inflate your lungs…Blow hard!“In the collection room, Nadine, 71, expels as much air as she can into a tube. Isabelle Barraquier, the nurse, encourages her: “and we hold on, we hold on, we hold on…!“

The machine calculates whether the breath is below or above standards. If an abnormality is detected, this increases the risk of lung cancer threefold.

Nadine has been smoking for over 40 years and immediately agreed to do this screening. “At 27, I gave birth. I had kilos and I told myself ‘if I smoke, I’ll lose them’. In the end, the cigarette remained, that’s it!“

“We’ll give you something to help you breathe better“, concludes the nurse. You must then answer a questionnaire to assess the family history.

Some people screened will get an appointment for a scan at the hospital.

In this lung cancer awareness month, the Alpes-Maritimes department is not the only one to get involved. A few kilometers away, the principality of Monaco is launching, for the first time, a “national screening campaign“, intended for Monegasques and commuter employees (French and Italians who work in Monaco and who are attached to Monegasque social funds).

Objective: to screen all smokers over the age of 50 who have consumed at least one pack of cigarettes per day for twenty years. “A letter will be sent to all social security holders in Monaco over the age of 50 so that all those concerned can be screened free of charge using a lung scanner.“, explains the princely government in a press release.

“We expect around 15,000 people who could be eligible for this screening, but not everyone will necessarily be eligible, particularly if they are occasional smokers.“, explained to France 3 Côte d’Azur last month, Christophe Robino, the Monaco Minister of Health.

According to the National Cancer Institute, “Tobacco is responsible for 75,000 deaths, including 46,000 from cancer, each year in France. […] Without tobacco, almost a third of cancer deaths could be avoided“. Indeed, tobacco is responsible for more than 8 out of 10 lung cancers and is also often present in cancers of the aerodigestive tract and the bladder.

In 2020, more than three in ten French people aged 18 to 75 reported smoking (31.9%) and a quarter reported smoking daily (25.9%).

Institut national du cancer

on its website

“The situation remains worrying“, continues the National Cancer Institute, because “this daily smoking prevalence rate is one of the highest rates recorded in Western countries“.

Smoking also has consequences for those around the smoker. “In France, nearly 1,100 deaths are linked to passive smoking each year, including 150 from lung cancer“, indicates the Léon Bérard Cancer Center.

Every year, smoking kills more than 8 million people worldwide, including 7 million active or former smokers and approximately 1.2 million non-smokers exposed to tobacco smoke, according to the World Health Organization.