HOUSTON (KIAH) – The American Cancer Society announced an update to their lung cancer screening guideline. The goal is to help reduce the number of people dying from the disease due to smoking history.

“I think it’s important to remember how actually important lung cancer is to this country, and how sad it is how poor our screening rates are,” said Dr. William Duhat, Chief Scientific Officer for ACS, during a press conference for the new lung cancer screening guidelines.

Experts want Americans, especially current and former smokers, to be more proactive when it comes to testing for the disease. Currently, lung cancer accounts for 20% of all cancer related deaths in this country, more deaths than breast cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer combined.

The new guidelines expand the age range to 50 to 80 years old. It includes high risk adults and even heavy smokers to former smokers with a 20-year or greater pack-year history. The recommended test is an annual low dose CT scan.