by
Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | May 31, 2016
If patients with a high risk of developing lung cancer are diagnosed at an early stage then they have a 73 percent chance of surviving for five or more years, according to the UK Lung cancer screening trial (UKLS). The next step is to decide if a national screening program in needed in the UK.
Lung cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Europe, with over 410,000 new cases diagnosed in 2012, according to Cancer Research UK. More people with a known stage are diagnosed with advanced stage lung cancer rather than early stage.
If the patient’s lung cancer is diagnosed at a very early stage, they have up to a 73 percent chance of surviving for five years or more and over 80 percent have had surgical interventions. Because of that, there has been a lot of focus on CT screening trials in the UK and U.S.
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For the UKLS trial, the researchers had 4,055 individuals between the ages of 50 and 75 undergo a population-based questionnaire to identify if they were at high risk for lung cancer. They recruited 2,028 for the low-dose CT (LDCT) group and the other 2,027 for the control group.
A total of 1,994 patients underwent LDCT and 42 were diagnosed with lung cancer. The researchers also found that 36 out of the 42 cancers were stage 1 or 2 and 35 of the patients underwent surgical resection as their primary treatment.
The researchers concluded that the UKLS trial has successfully demonstrated a way to screen for lung cancer in high-risk individuals in the UK. But since it was a pilot trial, they are waiting for the outcomes of a CT screening trial underway in the Netherlands that may provide mortality data supporting the program.
In the U.S., the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial found that LDCT reduces lung cancer mortality by 20 percent. In February 2015,
CMS announced it would reimburse annual LDCT lung cancer screening for individuals between ages 55 and 77 who are current smokers or quit smoking within the past 15 years and have a smoking history of at least 30 pack-years.
The results of the U.K. trial are promising, but further follow-up of the trial population will inform decisions about whether there should be a screening program as well as improvements to the screening process, according to Stephen Duffy, lead statistician of the trial.
