Lung cancer screening: An update

Two prominent and timely issues in lung cancer screening are discussed in t his article. First, findings from extended mortality follow-up of participa nts enrolled as part of the Mayo Lung Project are reviewed. These findings suggest that overdiagnosis -the identification, through screening, of clini cally unimportant lung cancer lesions-may occur when screening for lung can cer. Second, the question of whether sufficient evidence exists to advocate mass lung cancer screening with low radiation dose spiral computed tomogra phy (CT) is discussed. Given the absence of lung cancer mortality data for spiral CT, it is concluded that such activities should not be advocated at this point in time. The Lung Screening Study, an ongoing randomized control led trial of lung cancer screening with spiral CT, also is described. (C) 2 001 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.