Leslie J. Kohman, MD, FACS, Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery, Upstate University Hospital, Upstate Cancer Center, discusses the importance of lung cancer screening.

Lung cancer is the only tumor type in which a screening test has been shown to reduce all-cause mortality and disease-specific mortality, Kohman says. Even in comparison with colonoscopy and mammography, lung cancer screening is the only modality that has been shown to reduce the chances of dying overall. This represents a major advancement in the field, says Kohman.

Screening is done via imaging with a low-dose CT scan to the chest. This should be done in high-risk individuals every year. High-risk patients are those who are between the ages of 55 and 79 and have at least a 30-year pack history of smoking, Kohman notes. If they have quit smoking, it should have been within the last 15 years.

According to data from the National Lung Screening Trial, lung cancer screening reduced the risk of dying overall. Moreover, 80% of patients who were discovered to have lung cancer through the screening were cured.

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Dr. Kohman Discusses Importance of Lung Cancer Screening

Leslie J. Kohman, MD, FACS, Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery, Upstate Medical University, Upstate Cancer Center, discusses the results of the NELSON trial of screening in lung cancer.

In the highly anticipated NELSON trial, which was presented at the 2018 World Conference on Lung Cancer, the use of a CT scan was found to reduce the risk of lung cancer deaths by 26% at 10 years, and even more so in women. The findings from this trial outperformed those of the National Lung Screening Trial, but nonetheless support the use of screening. Patients who enrolled in the trial were randomized to CT screening at baseline, year 1, 3, and 5.5 or to standard care. There were 157 and 250 deaths in the screening and controls arms, respectively.

If screening was done adequately and accurately around the world in patients who are at high-risk, physicians would be able to save 25% of people who die from lung cancer, states Kohman. That breaks down to approximately half a million people a year.

Leslie J. Kohman, MD, FACS

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Dr. Kohman Discusses Importance of Lung Cancer Screening

Dr. Kohman on the NELSON Trial of Lung Cancer Screening