Tobacco.org

To Screen or Not for Lung Cancer: Does It Make a Difference?  

The best hope for an answer to the screening puzzle lies with a large federal trial of 50,000 current and former smokers that is comparing spiral CT screening with standard chest X-rays to see which saves more lives. The National Cancer Institute needs to do everything possible to expedite the researchers' analysis of their data. The usual pokey pace of academic research seems inadequate when many thousands of lives could be at stake.

At this point, in the absence of firm evidence that CT screening is beneficial, no major medical organization recommends its widespread use. On an individual level, any heavy smoker who might want to get screened should recognize that there can be harms as well as benefits. The scans are so sensitive that they pick up lots of things not worth worrying about, yet once something is detected it is hard to resist the urge to do follow-up procedures. Any screening is best done by doctors sophisticated enough to recognize and treat only what really needs treatment.

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