Description
Lung cancer is the commonest cause of cancer death in
the western world with current therapeutic interventions
having little impact on the epidemic proportions of the
disease. As mortality is related to the stage at diagnosis and
subsequent treatment, screening for and treating early lung
cancer is intuitively appealing. Initial trials however showed
chest radiography and sputum cytology were not sensitive
enough to use.Initial screening using conventional CT has
shown promising results but trials involving multi-slice CT
are still underway. At present the question of whether to
adopt widespread screening remains to be answered in large
randomised trials, in particular the National Lung
Screening Trial, results of which are imminently pending.
