Christopher Towe

MD

Department of Surgery, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University

Associate Professor of Surgery

NLST (Learn more about this study)

NLST-1195

Feb 26, 2024

Reassessing Efficacy: Understanding Failures in Lung Cancer Screening Despite Low-Dose CT Protocol Adherence

This study aims to investigate the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients who died due to lung cancer despite participating in the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST) and receiving low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening. While the NLST demonstrated the superiority of low-dose CT over chest X-ray in reducing lung cancer mortality, a subset of patients undergoing CT screening still experienced fatal outcomes. This analysis hypothesizes that these deaths indicate a failure of the current annual screening protocol to adequately identify or predict lung cancer progression in certain individuals. By examining the specific clinical and demographic profiles of these patients, the study seeks to identify factors that may predispose individuals to poorer outcomes despite adherence to recommended screening intervals. The findings aim to inform more tailored and potentially more frequent screening strategies to enhance early detection and improve survival rates among high-risk populations.

- Investigate the clinical characteristics (e.g., smoking history, age, gender, comorbidities) of patients who died due to lung cancer despite participating in the NLST and undergoing low-dose CT screening.

- Examine demographic factors (e.g., socioeconomic status, access to healthcare) associated with fatal outcomes among individuals undergoing low-dose CT screening for lung cancer.

- Identify potential biomarkers or radiological features that may distinguish patients who experience fatal outcomes from those who do not despite adherence to recommended screening protocols.

- Explore any disparities in lung cancer outcomes among different demographic groups within the low-dose CT screening cohort.

- Assess the impact of interval between screenings and frequency of CT scans on lung cancer mortality among high-risk individuals.