Computed Tomographic Screening for Lung Cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Although lung cancer screening has been advocated, for a long time level 1 evidence has been absent, leaving physicians with the challenge of treating patients with mostly incurable disease. Even in 2014, the 5-year survival for lung cancer will only be around 16% despite sophisticated imaging and diagnostic tools. Physicians are thus taking a more proactive route, including early screening for lung cancer and efforts to curb tobacco use. This review discusses lung cancer screening in the context of the National Lung Screening Trial, risk of overdiagnosis, cost-effectiveness, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations, lung cancer screening in the community, improving the specificity of lung cancer screening, and treatment options for early-stage lung cancer. Tables review key principles of computed tomographic screening, cost-effectiveness of computer tomographic screening, predictors of malignancy in the Pan-Canadian screening study model, and follow-up and management of newly detected indeterminate nodules. Figures show common causes of cancer death in the United States, estimated new cancer cases and cancer deaths in men and women, a four-stage system used in clinical and surgical evaluation of lung cancer, secondary prevention lung cancer screening goals, and a low-dose computer tomographic scan. This review contains 5 figures, 5 tables, and 31 references.