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Review
. 2022 May 11;19(5):591-608.
doi: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2021.0690.

Advances in lung cancer screening and early detection

Caichen Li #  1   2 , Huiting Wang #  1   2 , Yu Jiang #  2 , Wenhai Fu  1 , Xiwen Liu  2 , Ran Zhong  1   2 , Bo Cheng  2 , Feng Zhu  3 , Yang Xiang  1 , Jianxing He  2   4 , Wenhua Liang  1   2   5
Affiliations
Review

Advances in lung cancer screening and early detection

Caichen Li et al. Cancer Biol Med. .

Abstract

Lung cancer is associated with a heavy cancer-related burden in terms of patients' physical and mental health worldwide. Two randomized controlled trials, the US-National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) and Nederlands-Leuvens Longkanker Screenings Onderzoek (NELSON), indicated that low-dose CT (LDCT) screening results in a statistically significant decrease in mortality in patients with lung cancer, LDCT has become the standard approach for lung cancer screening. However, many issues in lung cancer screening remain unresolved, such as the screening criteria, high false-positive rate, and radiation exposure. This review first summarizes recent studies on lung cancer screening from the US, Europe, and Asia, and discusses risk-based selection for screening and the related issues. Second, an overview of novel techniques for the differential diagnosis of pulmonary nodules, including artificial intelligence and molecular biomarker-based screening, is presented. Third, current explorations of strategies for suspected malignancy are summarized. Overall, this review aims to help clinicians understand recent progress in lung cancer screening and alleviate the burden of lung cancer.

Keywords: Lung cancer; biomarkers; early detection; low-dose CT; screening; strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflicts of interest are disclosed.

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