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Excerpts from Routine Cancer Screens Save Lives

By Emma Ross, Associated Press [07/09/99]

LONDON --Routine CT scans for people at high risk of developing lung cancer could save lives by detecting the disease at earlier stages, a study published Friday suggests.

Currently, about 70 percent of people whose lung cancer is caught at the earliest stage survive. In most cases, however, lung cancer is detected when it is too late to treat, and the overall cure rate stands at just 12 percent.

Stepping up the use of CT scans, an X-ray method also known as CAT scan, could boost survival rates to 80 percent, according to the new study, published in The Lancet, a British medical journal.

A CT scan, or computerized tomography, is more precise than traditional chest X-rays. The method makes multiple images of the body or parts of the body and uses a computer to construct, from those images, cross-sectional views.

Most doctors believe attempts to screen for lung cancer, the most prevalent form of cancer and one of the most deadly, are ineffective because studies have shown that traditional chest X-rays provide no benefit.

Also, lung cancer is so aggressive that, by the time it is spotted by an X-ray, the tumor is very difficult to treat.

But the researchers at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center say a CT scan picks up more small tumors than the traditional chest X-ray.

Dr. Ian Smith, head of the lung cancer unit at London's Royal Marsden Hospital, said it remains to be seen whether finding the tumors earlier will save lives, but he said the study's results should prompt further investigation into CT scans.

``It would be quite wrong at this stage for everyone to start doing it, but I think it shows a lot of promise,'' he said.

Smith said that if the CT scan proves to be effective, it could catch some cases two or three years earlier than they are now spotted.

Smith and Howard both noted that CT scanning is more expensive than traditional X-rays, which could make it impractical for routine screening.

The study's authors, however, said it was only slightly more expensive than a regular chest X-ray.

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