Lung Cancer Screening: Ready for Prime Time?

Extract

News from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) in November made headlines worldwide: A screening program had succeeded in cutting deaths from the world's most lethal cancer by 20%.

In this randomized, controlled trial, 54,000 current or former heavy smokers aged 55–74 years received either chest X-rays or low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) scans in an attempt to detect lung cancer early enough to reduce mortality.

An estimated 222,520 cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year, and 157,399 people are expected to die of the disease—more than will die of breast, colon, and prostate cancer combined. The ramifications of a screening program that could make a dent in that number could hardly be overestimated.

“The finding is incredibly encouraging,” said Claudine Isaacs, M.D., principal investigator of the NLST at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, which enrolled 1,800 patients in the trial. “It's very impressive, especially given a malignancy for which our treatments are not all that effective.”