Pros and Cons of Applying Deep Learning Automatic Scan-Range Adjustment to Low-Dose Chest CT in Lung Cancer Screening Programs

Abstract

Dr. Ruan and colleagues should be congratulated on their work, as it raises important issues that must be addressed to enable advances in deep learning-based CT protocol algorithms used in low-dose chest CT (LDCT). These algorithms are crucial for automatically setting chest CT scan ranges to achieve optimal scanning protocols at low radiation doses ( 1 Ruan J Meng Y Zhao F et al. Development of deep learning-based automatic scan range setting model for lung cancer screening low-dose CT imaging. Acad Radiol. 2022; (S1076-6332(21)00566-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acra.2021.12.001) Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar ). During the past decade, great advances have been made in LDCT, which is now a cornerstone for lung cancer screening. Evidence supporting lung cancer mortality reduction is emerging in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cohort studies ( 2 Aberle DR Adams AM Berg CD et al. Reduced lung-cancer mortality with low-dose computed tomographic screening. N Engl J Med. 2011; 365: 395-409 Crossref PubMed Scopus (6623) Google Scholar , 3 de Koning HJ van der Aalst CM de Jong PA et al. Reduced lung-cancer mortality with volume CT screening in a randomized trial. N Engl J Med. 2020; 382: 503-513 Crossref PubMed Scopus (953) Google Scholar , 4 Nawa T. Low-dose CT screening for lung cancer reduced lung cancer mortality in Hitachi city. Int J Radiat Biol. 2019; 95: 1441-1446 Crossref PubMed Scopus (12) Google Scholar , 5 Nawa T Fukui K Nakayama T et al. A population-based cohort study to evaluate the effectiveness of lung cancer screening using low-dose CT in Hitachi city. Japan. Jpn J Clin Oncol. 2019; 49: 130-136 Crossref PubMed Scopus (27) Google Scholar , 6 Wu FZ Huang YL Wu YJ et al. Prognostic effect of implementation of the mass low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening program: a hospital-based cohort study. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2020; 29: 445-451 Crossref PubMed Scopus (11) Google Scholar ).