CT lung screening offers moderate benefit to smokers

August 1, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. CT lung screening offers moderate benefit to smokers Modeling estimates increase in cancer detection, but randomized trials will offer final word -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A new study finds that CT screening can reduce lung cancer mortality among smokers but will not protect them from the other adverse effects of lighting up. Results from an evaluation of the long-term efficacy of screening fell between more positive outcomes reported by the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP) and another investigation that declared CT screening was not entirely advantageous. The latest study appears in the July issue of Radiology (2008;248[1]:278-287). "Smoking cessation should be the primary message to any continuing smokers," lead investigator Pamela McMahon, Ph.D., told Diagnostic Imaging. "Our analysis suggests that lung cancer screening may offer some additional benefit, but patients should be made aware that our study was a modeling study, not a randomized clinical trial." McMahon, a senior scientist at the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues took data concerning 1520 current and former smokers, screened as part of the Mayo Clinic helical CT trial, and used the information to populate a Lung Cancer Policy Model, a comprehensive microsimulation model of lung cancer.

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