New Protection Against Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer among both men and women, according to the American Cancer Society. Often, people do not know they have lung cancer until the disease is in advanced stages. Since lung cancer is a potentially fatal but treatable disease, researchers have sought ways to detect it earlier, when the chance for patients to recover is greater. Lung cancer five-year survival rate is 16.3 percent, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Lung cancer accounts for approximately 28 percent of cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. It’s estimated that lung cancer accounted for approximately 160,000 cancer deaths in 2012—more than prostate, pancreas, breast and colon cancer combined.

One long-term study of lung cancer detection is the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. The randomized trial of 53,454 heavy smokers and past smokers, all of whom smoked for at least 30 years (and so were at an elevated risk for lung cancer) assigned participants to one of two screenings:

• Low-dose helical computed tomography (CT), which can reveal lung cancer nodules as small as 1 millimeter
• Standard chest X-ray

Results of the NLST, published in late 2011, suggested low-dose helical CT was more accurate in detecting lung cancers, with an average of 24.2 positive findings over three rounds of testing per patient, as compared to an average of 6.9 positive findings with standard X-rays. The false-positive rate was about 1.9 percent higher for the low-dose helical CT screenings.

A 2012 study also includes the NLST in a systematic review of literature to get a wider picture of the benefits and risks of low-dose CT in screening for lung cancer. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, identified false positives, radiation exposure and deaths from complications of biopsy as risks of low-dose CT screening. However, benefits of the test heavily outweighed drawbacks for people with a long history of smoking. The NLST showed a clear reduction in mortality for long-term smokers who had quit smoking and then underwent the screening.

Advances in lung cancer screening can help diagnose and treat the disease but cannot prevent it. Lung cancer occurs at a high rate in smokers, with 90 percent of lung cancer cases attributable to smoking. According to the American Lung Association, men who smoke are 23 times more likely than those who don’t smoke to develop lung cancer. Other causes of lung cancer include radon exposure and secondhand smoke.

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