Benefits of Newer Risk-Based Criteria for Lung Cancer Screening
Posted: Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Individualized lung cancer risk–based screening may prove to be more effective in preventing lung cancer deaths than current U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) screening criteria, according to a study conducted by Li C. Cheung, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The new risk-based criteria may identify more ever-smokers as eligible for low-dose computed tomography (CT) than the current criteria, which may exclude some smokers who would be considered at high risk for lung cancer based on demographic, clinical, and smoking behaviors.
“Eligibility for lung cancer screening should be based on reaching a cost-effective risk threshold that balances CT screening benefits and harms by using a lung cancer risk tool validated in the U.S. population,” Dr. Cheung concluded.
The USPSTF recommends annual CT lung cancer screenings for people between the ages of 55 and 80 years who currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years and have at least a 30 pack-year history of cigarette smoking.
Researchers used data from 5,460, 5,155, and 6,971 smokers without self-reported lung cancer from National Health Interview Surveys from 2005, 2010, and 2015, respectively. Although the number of USPSTF eligible smokers decreased after 2010, analysis showed that using a 5-year lung cancer risk of 2.5%, instead of current criteria, would have prevented 2,617 deaths between 2005 and 2010 and 5,115 deaths between 2010 and 2015. They reported the data were statistically significant for both periods (P < .001).
