Open AccessEarly detection of lung cancer: Low‐dose computed tomography screening in C hina
Author(s) -
Zhao ShiJun,
Wu Ning
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
thoracic cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1759-7714
pISSN - 1759-7706
DOI - 10.1111/1759-7714.12253
Subject(s) - medicine , lung cancer , national lung screening trial , lung cancer screening , randomized controlled trial , cancer , stage (stratigraphy) , lung , oncology , radiology , paleontology , biology
Lung cancer is currently the leading cause of cancer‐related death in C hina and western countries for both men and women. Overall, the five‐year survival rate of lung cancer is approximately 15%, whereas the five‐year survival for patients with surgically resected early‐stage disease is 60–80%. Screening is conceptually a good strategy for reducing the mortality rate of lung cancer. Randomized controlled trials in the 1960s and 1970s found that chest radiographic screening did not result in a reduction in mortality for high‐risk individuals. Recently published data from the N ational L ung S creening T rial ( NLST ) showed a 20% reduction in lung cancer mortality in subjects who underwent low‐dose computed tomography ( LDCT ) screening compared to those randomized to conventional chest X ‐ray. The encouraging results of the NLST , however, could not be confirmed by the preliminary results of ongoing E uropean trials. More results from E uropean randomized controlled trials are expected in the next few years. Recently, a number of lung cancer screening studies using LDCT have been initiated in C hina. This article briefly summarizes the results of the current and previous lung cancer screening trials worldwide, and focuses on the current status of LDCT lung cancer screening in C hina.