Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

About the Lung Cancer Screening Trial

There's been a lot of press about the results of the National Lung Screening Trial, or NLST, in the past few days. Preliminary findings from this massive (53,000-person) trial suggested that screening for lung cancer in heavy, long-term smokers with low-dose helical (spiral) CT scanning was linked to 20% fewer deaths than screening with a conventional chest X-ray. If you are a heavy smoker or are concerned about someone who is, I strongly recommend this publication from the National Cancer Institute. It provides a detailed explanation of the NLST, the people who participated, the difference between a helical CT scan and an X-ray, and the implications of these findings for smokers. 

Lung Cancer in Nonsmokers

As many as 24,000 American nonsmokers die of lung cancer each year. The diagnosis must be a shock to a lifetime nonsmoker, since most of us assume that we're immune to the disease if we've avoided cigarettes all these years. Wrong.  A giant, worldwide study conducted among 2.4 million nonsmokers with lung cancer has provided some insight into who's at highest risk, but it also highlights how little we really know about this disease. Read about the study in the New York Times. The original research, conducted by the American Cancer Society in conjunction with many institutions, is at PLoS Medicine. A notable conclusion is that the researchers can find no evidence that the risk of lung cancer is increasing in the US among lifetime nonsmokers.