The present status of screening and diagnosis of early lung cancer

The 'bottom line' regarding any benefit from detection and treatment of early lung cancer will be a difference in mortality in the screened versus control groups. This has not yet been shown in the preliminary results of the cooperative studies - nor could we really expect it. If screening is indeed saving the lives of patients with early stage lung cancer, it should take some years of careful follow-up for that fact to become apparent, much less achieve statistical significance. We conclude that: roentgenographic and cytologic screening can detect cases at an earlier stage of the disease; those patients surgically resected in stage I (AJC) experience better survival, screening has not yet been shown to reduce mortality from lung cancer, but further judgment of its effectiveness awaits completion of three major studies reviewed in this report.