NEW YORK, March 6 (UPI) -- Screening for lung cancer with computed tomography may not be as effective in reducing deaths as previously thought, according to a new U.S. study.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that individuals screened with CT scans were three times more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer and 10 times more likely to undergo lung-cancer surgery.
However, CT scans did not appear to reduce the risk of advanced lung-cancer diagnoses or deaths.
Dr. Peter B. Bach of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and colleagues examined the effect of CT scans on individuals by comparing the frequency of lung-cancer detection; resection, or surgical removal of part of the lung; advanced lung-cancer cases; and deaths from lung cancer with what would have occurred in the absence of screening.
The findings included 3,246 current or former smokers without symptoms who were screened for lung cancer beginning in 1998.
