[Screening for lung cancer in 2006: is there a validated test?].
Lung cancer is by far the most common cause of death from any tumor. This is partly due to the late stage of most bronchial carcinoma at the time of diagnosis. Curative treatment by surgery is possible only for localized disease. Hope to decrease mortality by screening techniques such as radiography and/or sputum cytology led to several large trials in the eighties. None of these studies were able to show a meaningful decrease in mortality. Improvement in medical imaging lead to a new hope that low-dose CT scan may be an efficient screening tool for lung cancer. This article reviews the data currently available. So far no screening technique has been able to demonstrate an impact on lung cancer mortality despite the higher sensitivity to detect smaller lung tumors. Therefore, in 2006, screening for lung cancer can not be recommended.
Mach
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Service d'oncologie, Département de médecine interne, HUG, 1211 Genève 14. nicolas.mach@hcuge.ch
D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*