Lung Cancer Screening

Lung cancer screening refers to strategies used to identify early lung cancers before they cause symptoms, at a point where they are more likely to be curable; because localized, stage I lung cancer has a substantially higher long-term survival rate than advanced-stage disease, screening aims to catch the cancer before it spreads. The three main types are low-dose computed tomography, chest X-rays and sputum cytology tests, and results from large randomized studies such as the United States National Lung Screening Trial have prompted the United States Preventive Services Task Force, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other professional bodies to recommend low-dose CT screening for individuals at high risk of the disease.