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Review
. 2020 Jul;12(7):3815-3820.
doi: 10.21037/jtd.2020.02.17.

Focus on lung cancer screening

Alfredo Tartarone  1 , Rosa Lerose  2 , Michele Aieta  1
Affiliations
Review

Focus on lung cancer screening

Alfredo Tartarone et al. J Thorac Dis. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

Poor survival of lung cancer (LC) patients depends on several factors first of all the delay in the diagnosis, considering that the majority of patients have an advanced-stage disease at the time of diagnosis. In this context, use of screening to increase the percentage of early LC detection can play a crucial role. After the preliminary unsatisfactory experiences with chest X-rays and sputum cytology, low dose computed tomography (LDCT) has become the best method for LC screening. In particular, several randomized LDCT screening trials conducted in the last year showed significant reductions in LC mortality in high-risk subjects. This review focuses on both recent advances in LC screening and some open questions.

Keywords: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); low dose computed tomography (LDCT); lung cancer screening (LC screening).

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jtd.2020.02.17). The series “Improving Outcomes in Lung Cancer Through Early Diagnosis and Smoking Cessation” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. AT served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Journal of Thoracic Disease from Aug 2019 to Jul 2021. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The BioMILD Trial. LDCT, low dose computed tomography.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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