Selection Criteria for Lung-Cancer Screening

Low-dose CT scanning reduces lung-cancer mortality. Further improvements are possible if the screened population includes a larger proportion of high-risk persons. The authors added features to the criteria for screening that improved sensitivity and positive predictive value. The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) showed that lung-cancer screening with the use of low-dose computed tomography (CT) resulted in a 20% reduction in mortality from lung cancer. 1 Some organizations now recommend adoption of lung-cancer screening in clinical practice for high-risk persons if high-quality imaging, diagnostic methods, and treatment are available. 2 – 4 Most of these recommendations identify persons to be screened by applying the NLST criteria, which include an age between 55 and 74 years, a history of smoking of at least 30 pack-years, a period of less than 15 years since cessation of smoking, or some variant of these . . .