News | Lung Imaging | January 17, 2022

New study refutes previous findings that said decline was solely due to new therapies

A recent, substantial decline in lung cancer deaths is associated with earlier diagnosis of lung cancer than in the past, supporting the need for increased use of screening to save lives, according to a Mount Sinai study published in JAMA Network Open in December.

January 17, 2022 — A recent, substantial decline in lung cancer deaths is associated with earlier diagnosis of lung cancer than in the past, supporting the need for increased use of screening to save lives, according to a Mount Sinai study published in JAMA Network Open in December.

The earlier detection of lung cancer came about both due to increased screening via computed tomography (CT) and to follow-up on potential cancers found on scans meant to study other organs or disease. Once these precancerous and early-cancer nodules are found, they can be removed with surgery, which can often be curative, according to the study.

“This is the first time a large population-based study has demonstrated decreased lung cancer mortality with early detection—finding cancer in earlier stages—when tumors are smaller and more curable,” said the study’s lead author Raja M. Flores, MD, Chair of Thoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System and Steven and Ann Ames Professor in Thoracic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “This study emphasizes the impact of screening followed by surgical intervention to save lives in people at high risk for lung cancer.”

Lung cancer is diagnosed in more than 200,000 people annually and remains one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in the United States. Smoking cessation programs after the landmark 1964 Surgeon General’s report on smoking and tobacco use have historically contributed to some decline of lung cancer incidence, but experts know that more needs to be done to quell the deadly disease. While prior studies have explored the association of smoking cessation, earlier interventions, and targeted therapies with non-small cell lung cancer mortality, the role of diagnosis at earlier stages due to early detection has not been adequately studied until now.

The findings were based on a retrospective analysis of 312,382 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for the vast majority of lung cancer cases, from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, an authoritative source for cancer statistics. Using data from 2006 to 2016, researchers found that on average, lung cancer deaths decreased by about 4 percent each year.

During the same time period, early-stage diagnoses rose from 26.5 percent to 31.2 percent while late-stage diagnoses decreased from 70.8 to 66.1. Both are considered significant shifts, underlined by their resulting survival rates: the median length of survival for patients with early-stage lung cancer was 57 months while the median for late-stage cancer was seven months.

In 2013, during the study period, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended that at-risk individuals be screened annually for lung cancer via CT. CT scans find cancer in 24.2 percent of scans while the previous modality of screening, chest X-rays, only found cancer 6.9 percent of the time.

“These findings in context with prior studies seem to suggest that awareness of CT lung cancer screening is associated with an earlier detection of non-small cell lung cancer, but unfortunately, patient adherence to the USPSTF guidance on lung cancer screening with low-dose CT remains low, at around 5 percent of those people who meet the criteria,” said study author Emanuela Taioli, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Translational Epidemiology and Associate Director for Population Science at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai. “That means that we cannot only attribute CT screening to decreased mortality, but our findings reinforce the importance of screening in the early detection, intervention, and effective treatment of cancer.”

Claudia Henschke, MD, PhD, Professor of Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, leads one of the largest lung cancer screening programs in the United States and oversees an international registry of more than 80,000 lung cancer screening patients. Dr. Henschke said this study underscores the need to ensure that people who are eligible for screening receive it and that research is conducted to investigate our ability to expand who may be eligible given the increase in nonsmoking lung cancer patients whose cancer is largely found in later stages.

“If all people who were eligible to be screened received the low-dose CT scan, which has a dose of radiation comparable to an annual mammogram, we could save up to 80 percent of those people,” Henschke said. “Our lung cancer screening program is open to all people at risk of lung cancer, anyone who is 40 and older whether they are never-smokers, current smokers or former smokers.”

For more information: www.mountsinai.org

Related Lung Cancer Screening Content:

Lung Cancer Screening Rates Increase With Access to Medicare

Cancer Risk in Nodules Detected at Follow-up Lung Cancer Screening CT

Volpara Health Expands Lung Screening Capabilities Via Strategic Relationship with RevealDx


Related Content

News | Radiopharmaceuticals and Tracers

July 24, 2024 — Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited announced that the United States (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ...

Time July 24, 2024
arrow
News | RSNA

July 23, 2024 — Professional registration is open for RSNA 2024, the world’s largest radiology forum. This year’s theme ...

Time July 23, 2024
arrow
News | Artificial Intelligence

July 22, 2024 — Healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) systems provider, Qure.ai, has announced its receipt of a Class ...

Time July 22, 2024
arrow
News | Radiation Therapy

July 22, 2024 — RefleXion Medical, an external-beam theranostic oncology company, today announced that researchers from ...

Time July 22, 2024
arrow
News | ASTRO

July 18, 2024 — The members of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) recently elected five new officers to ...

Time July 18, 2024
arrow
News | PET-CT

July 16, 2024 — A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on June 20, 2024, titled, “Comparison of ...

Time July 16, 2024
arrow
News | Digital Pathology

July 12, 2024 — AGFA HealthCare, a global leader in healthcare imaging management solutions, announced that Enterprise ...

Time July 12, 2024
arrow
News | Digital Pathology

July 12, 2024 — Diagnosing cancer and providing the personalized therapy it often requires, is a collaborative effort ...

Time July 12, 2024
arrow
Videos | Radiology Business

Find actionable insights to achieve sustainability and savings in radiology in this newest of ITN’s “One on One” video ...

Time July 12, 2024
arrow
Feature | Imaging Technology News - ITN

Be sure to check out the latest digital edition of Imaging Technology News (ITN), featuring the Mobile C-arm Systems ...

Time July 11, 2024
arrow
Subscribe Now