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New York lung cancer study draws criticism 

The New York Early Lung Cancer Action Program (NY-ELCAP) has come under fire from researchers who claim the study has fundamental design flaws, could harm participants by overdiagnosis, and is a poor use of public funds.

Estimated to cost $10 million over two years, NY-ELCAP was funded primarily by tobacco settlement money. It is already halfway to its target of providing spiral CT screening for 10,000 people who are at risk for lung cancer.

The critique, led by Dr. Steven Woloshin, a researcher at Dartmouth University's VA Medical Center, charged that without a control group the study cannot establish whether screening with CT saves lives. It appeared in the June 15 Lancet.

"The flaw is not in ELCAP itself, but in drawing inferences about the benefit of screening from it, namely, that it reduces one's chance of lung cancer death. NY-ELCAP is advertised this way -- the original Lancet paper didn't make this inference," Woloshin said.

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