Hrudaya Nath

MD

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Professor of Radiology and Medicine

NLST (Learn more about this study)

201207-0027

Jul 27, 2012

Delay in Confirmation of Cancer Diagnosis When Screening CT was Positive in NLST

Purpose of lung cancer screening is to find the malignancy before it becomes inoperable. While imaging is considered the primary tool for the screening, finding an abnormality suspicious of cancer is only the first step since the screen detected abnormality requires pathological confirmation before any possible treatment can begin. Thus, timely confirmation of presence of cancer is as important as the recognition of an imaging abnormality for the screening process to be truly effective.

A delay in diagnosis can be from true negative screen (an interval cancer), which is not a real failure of the screening process. However, the delay can also result from a false negative interpretation of a screen, or when the screen is positive delay in confirmation of the cancer could result from a variety of factors such as inaction, inappropriate action, or false negative diagnostic procedures. Whatever the cause, the net result could be a delay in instituting appropriate treatment and possibly worsened prognosis.