A study reveals that a new method for determining lung cancer risk may help identify individuals for annual screenings and catch more cancers early.
Computed Tomography (CT) screening can identify lung tumors while they are still treatable, and the US National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) found that annual screening of high-risk smokers can reduce lung cancer mortality by 20%. The best way to identify those at high risk remains an important question. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends annual screening based on hard cutoffs for age and smoking duration/intensity, and doesn’t recommend screening former smokers who quit more than 15 years ago. The PLCOm2012 model was developed based on studying lung cancer incidence in participants from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO).
