PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Peter Mazzone
TI  - Lung cancer screening: Examining the issues
AID  - 10.3949/ccjm.79.s2.01
DP  - 2012 May 01
TA  - Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine
PG  - S1--S6
VI  - 79
IP  - 5 e-suppl 1
4099  - http://www.ccjm.org/content/79/5_e-suppl_1/S1.short
4100  - http://www.ccjm.org/content/79/5_e-suppl_1/S1.full
SO  - Cleve Clin J Med2012 May 01; 79
AB  - The goal of screening is to detect disease at a stage when cure or control is possible, thereby decreasing diseasespecific deaths in the population. Many studies have attempted to demonstrate that lung cancer screening using chest radiography or computed tomography (CT) identifies patients with lung cancer and reduces cancer-related mortality. Until recently, there was no evidence confirming a reduction in disease-specific mortality with screening. Early cancer screening should result in a gradual population-wide stage shift toward earlier cancer stages over time, but stage shifting was not reported in early lung cancer screening studies. Lead-time, length-time, and overdiagnosis biases may each have an impact on screening studies reporting survival as an outcome. In this past year, the National Lung Screening Trial reported a significant reduction in cancer-related mortality as a result of screening with chest CT imaging. This will shape the direction of future screening programs.