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Dr. Kim Mulvihill ReportingA controversial new study offers the strongest evidence yet that screening smokers for lung cancer with computerized chest scans can save lives, much as mammograms do for women with breast cancer. However, experts disagree on whether the benefits outweigh the risks.
More people die from lung cancer than colon, breast, and prostate cancer combined. The problem is, once most patients find out they have it, it's too late.
Mammograms can detect breast cancer, but there's no recommended screening test for lung cancer. Six out of ten people diagnosed die within the first year. Now, the New England Journal of Medicine reports hi-tech x-rays called spiral CT scans can detect lung cancer at its earliest stage.
80 percent of those diagnosed in the study survived after surgery. The normal survival rate is only 15 percent.
Dr. Bruce Johnson, Dana-Faber Cancer Institute: "This is good news to people that either are at risk for lung cancer or might be getting lung cancer."
But doctors have long been concerned about CT scans leading to false positives and needless surgery.
Dr. Norman Edelman, American Lung Association: "What this study leaves open exactly is this really a benefit, or do the risks involved obscure the benefit?"
The US preventive screening task force -- which recommends screening tests -- doesn't recommend this one. It says the evidence as a whole is inconclusive. Insurance companies say that's why they don't cover it.
Susan Pisano, America's Health Insurance Plans: "What we're looking to is what does the science tell us and where does the science lead us? And currently the medical community hasn't recommended for this kind of screening for lung cancer."
For now, since 85 percent of lung cancer patients are current or former tobacco users, experts say the best way to prevent lung cancer is not to smoke.
The National Institutes of Health is conducting a large, long-term, randomized trial on the benefits of spiral CT scans. Results are expected in the next one to three years.
