Study Questions Ability of CT Screening to Reduce Lung Cancer Deaths

Diagnostic Imaging Online

An eight-year international study of more than 3000 current and former smokers has found that screening CT leads to early lung cancer diagnosis but does not cut lung cancer death rates for people who receive annual screening.

Although CT screening found nearly three times as many lung cancers as predicted, lead author Dr. Peter Bach, a pulmonologist/intensivist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, found that early detection and treatment did not lead to a corresponding decrease in advanced lung cancers or a reduction in deaths from lung cancer.

The multicenter study found no advantage to using CT screening on current or former smokers, the population at highest risk for developing lung cancer. The findings appear in the March 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.