Many lung tumors not likely to be a problem
Print Edition
Nearly 1 in 5 lung tumors detected on CT scans are probably so slow-growing they would never cause problems, according to the latest research.
Still, the results are not likely to change how doctors treat lung cancer.
For one thing, the disease is usually diagnosed after symptoms develop, when tumors show up on an ordinary chest X-ray and are potentially life-threatening.
Also, doctors don’t know yet how to determine which symptomless tumors found on CT scans might become dangerous, so they automatically treat the cancer aggressively.
The findings underscore the need to identify biological markers that would help doctors determine which tumors are harmless and which ones require treatment, said Dr Edward Patz Jr, lead author and a radiologist at Duke University Medical Center.
“Putting the word ‘harmless’ next to cancer is such a foreign concept to people,” said Dr Michael LeFevre, co-chairman of the US Preventive Services Task Force.
It recently issued a draft proposal recommending annual CT scans for high-risk current and former heavy smokers — echoing advice from the American Cancer Society. A final recommendation is pending, but LeFevre said it had already been assumed that screening might lead to overdiagnosis.
The new study was an analysis of data from the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial — National Cancer Institute research involving 53,452 Americans at high risk for lung cancer.
The American College of Radiology said an earlier study showed lung cancer screening significantly reduces lung cancer deaths in high-risk patients and that the benefit “significantly outweighs the comparatively modest rate of overdiagnosis” found in the new analysis.
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