Three-Dimensional X-Ray Has Reduced Risk Of Lung Cancer

Screening smokers and former smokers, and lung tumors with a three-dimensional X-ray has reduced the risk of dying of lung cancer by 20 percent, researchers said on Thursday.

Research sponsored by the UP National Cancer Institute is the first to demonstrate that people can be screened with lung cancer, similar to mammography for breast cancer and colon cancer and tests for prostate cancer.

"There has never been shown 20 percent of mortality reduction in the disease than ever before. This is huge," said Regina Vidaver Director General National Lung Cancer Partnership.

The researchers say their findings could save thousands of lives. Lung cancer kills 1.2 million people each year worldwide and kills 157,000 people in the U.S. this year alone, according to the American Cancer Society.
The trial of more than 53,000 current and former heavy smokers aged 55 to 74, found the "spiral" CT scans seem to catch tumors before they spread.

"For me it is a game changer," said Vidaver in a telephone interview. "We want that breast cancer has now many survivors."

Researchers have a number of uncertainties. I do not know if the CT radiation can increase cancer risk, and do not know what it means to study for light smokers, young people, or those who have never smoked. E 'can also check turns up a tumor that would never have killed the patients, and that some people experience unnecessary surgery if they are shielded.

It is unclear when and how the guidelines for screening for lung cancer could be developed, and until they are, insurance companies, including government programs such as Medicare pays an average of just $ 300 cost of a scan.

For the study, middle-aged smokers and the elderly were scanned with either spiral CT or chest X-rays once a year for three years from August 2002. They were followed for five years.

The researchers waited until an independent group was able to document a reduction of 20 percent of cancer deaths, or may determine that there was no significant advantage.

Last month, 354 people who received CT had died of lung cancer, compared to 442 with x-rays was developed with a lower risk of dying of 20.3 percent for the spiral CT group, and the researchers stopped the study.