National Cancer Institute - NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and ...

National Lung Screening Trial
http://www.cancer.gov/nlst
Contact:
Barbara Galen, M.S.N, C.R.N.P.
301-594-5225, barbara.galen@nih.hhs.gov
About six out of 10 people with lung
cancer die within a year of finding out
that they have the disease. To determine
whether screening people with either
spiral computed tomography (CT) or
chest X-ray before they have symptoms
could reduce deaths from lung cancer,
NCI launched the National Lung Screening
Trial (NLST)—the largest lung cancer
screening study ever undertaken. The
study, begun in 2002, completed its challenging
recruitment goal of 50,000 current
and former smokers in 18 months, which
was six months ahead of schedule.
Spiral CT, a technology introduced in the
1990s, uses X-rays to scan the entire chest
in about 15 to 25 seconds. A computer
creates images from the scan, assembling
them into a three-dimensional model
of the lungs. More than half of the hospitals
in the United States own spiral CT
machines and routinely use them for
staging lung and other cancers, that is,
determining how advanced the cancer
is after diagnosis.
Both chest X-rays and spiral CT scans have
been used to find lung cancer early. Spiral
CT can detect smaller lung abnormalities,
including cancers, than chest X-ray. Finding
and treating these smaller abnormalities
may reduce lung cancer deaths. But it
may not. It could turn out that screening
with spiral CT will result in more intrusive
diagnostic and therapeutic procedures
without reducing lung cancer deaths.
M A J O R O N G O I N G I N I T I A T I V E S
Answering this question is the goal
of NLST.
CIP, through its cooperative imaging group
American College of Radiology Imaging
Network (ACRIN), is funding 23 sites
throughout the country participating in
NLST. In this study, to conclude in 2009,
CIP is collaborating with the NCI Division
of Cancer Prevention, which marshaled
its large nationwide network of screening
researchers to recruit thousands of
participants throughout the United States.
In addition to performing the screening
study, ACRIN sites will collect blood,
urine, and sputum samples, which may
one day prove useful in early detection
of lung cancer. ACRIN sites will also
evaluate quality-of-life issues, assess
the cost-effectiveness of both methods,
and determine the impact on smoking
cessation of screening by spiral CT
compared to chest X-ray.
National Computed Tomography
Colonography Trial
http://imaging.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/
screening
Principal Investigator:
C. Daniel Johnson, M.D., Mayo Clinic
Approximately 145,290 Americans will be
diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2006.
This is the second most common cause
of cancer death in the United States. As
most colon cancers develop from polyps,
detection and removal of these polyps
can prevent cancer. When colon cancer is
detected in its early stages, the survival
rate is 90 percent. Though there are several
approved screening tests for colon cancer,
including colonoscopy, many people
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