Screening with CT is not the way to a better lung cancer prognosis

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

CT screening found not to improve survival in lung cancer, even thought it finds many new cases.
Computed tomography (CT) is a way of screening for lung cancer. Because many cases are not found till the disease is advanced and hard to cure, the hope was that CT may allow earlier diagnosis and treatment - and better survival.

Unfortunately, this is not so, according to an international new study reported from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The researchers studied a group of 3,246 asymptomatic men and women smokers who were screened at least four times. Over the course of the study, three times as many lung cancers were found as would have been without screening. And there were ten times more surgeries performed as a result. But this early detection and treatment did not alter the death rate. There were 38 deaths in the group and the researchers estimate there would have been 39 without CT screening. The study follows earlier research that showed X-ray screening also has no benefit in lung cancer.

Source
Journal of the American Medical Association 7th March 2007

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