title: Lung cancer screening: a review of available data and current guidelines.
abstract: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. A lack of clinical symptoms in early-stage disease frequently leads to diagnosis at a late stage, and a 15% 5-year survival rate in all patients so diagnosed. This has led to significant interest in effective screening methods to detect early-stage cancers, particularly for high-risk groups, such as current or former smokers. Early clinical trials focused on chest radiograph with or without sputum cytology and failed to show an improvement in mortality with screening. A meta-analysis also failed to show a difference in all-cause mortality. Subsequent protocols compared low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scan with chest radiograph and documented increased detection of early-stage disease; however, they were not designed to prove a reduction in mortality. The most recent trials have focused on LDCT scans, including the National Lung Screening Trial. Data released from the National Lung Screening Trial demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in lung cancer deaths in patients screened with LDCT scans. When data from the study, including cost-effectiveness, are completely analyzed, they may lead to revision of current lung cancer screening recommendations to include LDCT scans in specific populations at high risk of developing lung cancer.
authors: University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. c.reddy@hci.utah.edu
authors: Chakravarthy
authors: C
authors: Reddy
authors: Deepak
authors: D
authors: Chilla
authors: Jonathan
authors: J
authors: Boltax
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012307:Risk Factors; D013183:Sputum / Q000166:cytology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed