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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2003;125:S94-S95
© 2003 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Editorials

Should screening for lung cancer be revisited?

From the Centre de Pneumologie de l'Hôpital Laval, Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Canada.

Received for publication Jan 25, 2001. Accepted for publication Feb 5, 2001. Address for reprints: Jean Deslauriers, MD, FRCS(C), Professor of Surgery, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Centre de Pneumologie de l'Hôpital Laval, 2725, chemin Sainte-Foy, Sainte-Foy, Quebec G1V 4G5, Canada.

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Over the past 15 to 20 years, lung cancer has become the most prevalent form of malignancy in men and the second most common in women. In addition, it has also become the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. Unfortunately, these statistics are unlikely to change in the near future even though the number of smokers in the United States has significantly decreased to 20% to 25% of the population.

In the management of lung cancer, surgical resection offers some possibility for cure, although most new patients are first seen when it is already too late to operate. Indeed, 5-year survival figures are consistently in the range of 10% to 12% even if they rise to 25% to 30% in those few individuals who can have complete resection of their tumors. The disease can, however, be cured in up to 70% of cases if surgically managed while still in its earliest stages (clinical stages Ia and Ib). Because of these better survival figures, it is tempting to assume that with lung cancer screening, tumors will be diagnosed at an earlier stage and cure rates will be higher. This seems even more likely if one considers that lung cancer should easily be identifiable on chest radiographs or by sputum cytology. In this context, . . . [Full Text of this Article]