Yet another study is showing support for CT lung cancer screening. In a real-world study in Cancer, researchers tracked screening’s impact on military veterans, finding that it contributed to more early-stage diagnoses as well as lower all-cause mortality.
It’s no secret that uptake of CT lung screening has been disappointing since the USPSTF in 2013 endorsed the test for high-risk people – mostly those with smoking histories.
- Uptake rates have been estimated to be under 10% by some studies, although recent research has shown that targeted interventions can improve that figure.
In the new study, researchers described results from the Veterans Health Administration’s effort to provide low-dose CT lung cancer screening to veterans from 2011 to 2018.
- The researchers noted that smoking rates are higher among veterans, resulting in lung cancer incidence rates that are 76% higher than the general population.
Researchers tracked outcomes retrospectively for 2.2k veterans who got screening before a lung cancer diagnosis and compared them to those with lung cancer who weren’t screened, finding that screening led to…
- Higher rates of stage I diagnosis (52% vs. 27%)
- Lower rates of stage IV diagnosis (11% vs. 32%)
- Lower rates of cancer mortality (41% vs. 70%)
- Lower rates of all-cause mortality (50% vs. 72%)
The sharp reduction in all-cause mortality is particularly striking.
- As we’ve discussed in the past, most population-based cancer screening tests have been shown to reduce cancer-specific deaths, but it’s been harder to show a decline in deaths from all causes.
The study also illustrates the advantage of providing lung screening within a large, integrated healthcare system, where it’s easier to track at-risk individuals and direct them to screening if necessary.
The Takeaway
Of all the positive studies published so far this year on CT lung cancer screening, this one is the most exciting. The findings show that even in an environment of low lung screening uptake, dramatic benefits can be realized with the right approach.
