Lung Cancer 10-Year Survival Dramatically Improves With Annual CT Screening
And Prompt Treatment
Lung cancer can be detected at its very earliest stage in 85 percent of patients
using annual low-dose CT screening, and when followed by prompt surgical
removal, the 10-year survival rate is 92 percent. These results, reported
in the New England Journal of Medicine, would dramatically
decrease the number of deaths from lung cancer -- the number one cause of cancer
deaths among men and women in the U.S.
The study was launched by a
team of researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical
Center in 1993 and expanded into an international collaboration of 38
institutions in 7 countries, the International Early Lung Cancer Action Project
(I-ELCAP). The I-ELCAP study is the largest, long-term study to determine the
usefulness of annual screening by CT.
Stage I lung cancer is the only
stage at which cure by surgery is highly likely. While survival rates have been
climbing for other forms of cancer, the survival rates for lung cancer have
remained dismal. Approximately 95 percent of the 173,000 people diagnosed each
year die from the disease -- more than ***, prostate and colon cancer
combined. The high death rates are a consequence of lung cancer not being
detected early enough for treatment to be curative.
Among the 31,567
people in the study, CT screening detected 484 people who were diagnosed with
lung cancer, 412 of whom were Stage I. Of the Stage I patients who chose not to
be treated, all died within five years. Overall, the estimated 10-year survival
rate for the 484 participants with lung cancer was 80 percent. The participants
were 40 years of age and older and at risk for lung cancer because of a history
of cigarette smoking, occupational exposure (to asbestos, beryllium, uranium or
radon), or exposure to secondhand smoke.
"We believe this study provides
compelling evidence that CT screening for lung cancer offers new hope for
millions of people at risk for this disease and could dramatically reverse lung
cancer death rates," said Dr. Claudia Henschke, the study's lead author and
principal investigator.
Since the early 1990s, there
have been remarkable advances in CT scanners. Sub-millimeter "slicing" can now
be applied to the entire chest in a single breath-hold. As a result, lung cancer
may be detected when it is smaller than it was possible to diagnose previously.
Although CT scans once yielded only 30 images, current technology yields over
600 images. As the technology advanced, the approaches for studying the
usefulness of this technology have also advanced.
The charge for a
low-dose CT screening varies, but ranges from $200 to $300.
Treatment
for Stage I lung cancer is less than half the cost of late-stage treatment.
Estimates of the cost-effectiveness of CT screening for lung cancer are similar
or better than those for mammography screening for *** cancer.