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Lung

Data was collected on procedures that were part of a diagnostic work-up for lung cancer and for staging procedures following a diagnosis. Two different types of events triggered the collection of diagnostic procedure information:

  1. Screens suspicious for lung cancer: Among approximately 71,000 participants screened once a year for up to 4 years, there were about 18,000 screening chest x-rays suspicious for lung cancer. These "positive" exams triggered further diagnostic follow-up, which was systematically captured, in most cases, for up to one year following the screen. Any positive chest x-ray screen and, less frequently a QA exam would refer a participant to further follow-up. This information was captured regardless of the eventual diagnosis.
  2. Confirmed diagnoses of lung cancer: When a participant is diagnosed with lung cancer within the trial period, procedures that were part of a diagnostic work-up that occurred in the year leading up to that diagnosis were captured in the data.

Therefore, if a participant had a diagnostic procedure during the trial such that it was neither one year following a positive screen nor one year prior to a lung cancer diagnosis, that information was not captured. As such, the only diagnostic procedures captured in the control arm are those that eventually lead to a lung cancer diagnosis.

For most purposes, diagnostic procedure data can be obtained within the Lung dataset. Additional details can be found in the Lung Diagnostic Procedures dataset (one record per procedure per person) and the Lung Medical Complications dataset (one record per medical complication per person).

Summary Available Data
  • ~64,000 procedures among ~15,000 participants
  • Collected for the year following a positive screen or the year preceding a lung cancer diagnosis
  • Collected in the intervention arm for participants with lung cancer or screens suspicious for lung cancer. (~48,000 procedures among ~13,000 participants)
  • Collected in the control arm only for participants with lung cancer. (~16,000 procedures among ~1800 participants)
  • Collected on DEL (Diagnostic Evaluation - Lung) forms:
  • Whether screens prompted diagnostic procedure(s)
  • Whether screens prompted biopsy
  • Available in diagnostic procedures data set:
    • Types of procedures
    • Days from randomization to procedure