Learn About PLCO

Trial Summary

The PLCO Cancer Screening Trial is a randomized, controlled trial of screening tests for prostate, lung, colorectal and ovarian cancers. Approximately 155,000 participants were enrolled between November 1993 and July 2001. The goal of the study was to assess whether these screening exams reduce mortality from these cancers.

Data Collected

Large amounts of data were collected in the PLCO trial, covering several areas of focus from a variety of sources including questionnaires completed near the beginning, through screening, cancer diagnoses and other events of interest, and ending with exit conditions, mortality information and general data cleaning and compilation into files.

• Main Questionnaires
• Screening
• Diagnostic Procedures
• Cancer Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Mortality
• Ancillary Data
• Biospecimens Results

Images

There are two kinds of PLCO images that can be requested through the CDAS system: Digitized Screening Chest X-Ray used to screen for lung cancer in the PLCO trial, or Digital Pathology Images that come from select prostate, lung, colorectal, colorectal adenoma, ovarian, female breast, male breast and bladder cancer patients.

Biospecimens Collected

Over 2.9 million biospecimens were collected during the course of the PLCO trial. The majority of specimens were collected on the intervention arm participants during their visits to the screening centers. Serum was collected every year from T0 to T5 except T3, and an additional remainder vial exists from the serum that was used for the cancer screens.

Data Tables

Data tables regarding cancer counts, questionnaire results, and biospecimens. Topics include incidence, mortality, demographics, baseline questionnaire, chronic conditions, serum, plasma, and genetic specimens, and tissue materials.

Main Findings

A collection of trial publications summarizing the recruitment and outcomes of the study. Available publication topics include lung, colorectal, ovary, design, and others.