http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23585930

F1000Prime Rep. 2013 Apr 2;5:12. doi: 10.12703/P5-12. Print 2013.

Early diagnosis of lung cancer.

Midthun DE.

Source

Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic 200 1st Street SW, Rochester, Minnesota USA, 55905.

Abstract

A large randomized controlled trial, The National Lung Screening Study (NLST), has demonstrated that screening with low-dose spiral computed tomography saved lives from lung cancer when compared with screening with chest radiographs. This is the first test showing efficacy in screening forlung cancer as previous trials of chest radiographs and sputum cytology failed to result in fewer deaths with screening. This review will examine the problem of lung cancer, the issues presented by screening, and the results of computed tomography (CT) studies for lung cancer screening. Now that CT screening has been shown to be effective, implementation of screening becomes the next step.