CT screening for lung cancer: not ready for routine practice

Lung cancer continues to be a major worldwide health problem. Multiple strategies are being explored in an attempt to reduce lung cancer mortality, including a renewed interest in screening. Multiple low-dose spiral computed tomography (CT) trials have been proposed, as proponents predict that small nodules will represent early-stage disease and detecting them will ultimately translate into improvements in outcomes. At this time, however, only prevalence-screening data are available, and it remains to be seen if CT will truly reduce mortality. The appropriate hypothesis-driven studies still must be performed and the results carefully analyzed before CT screening for lung cancer can be accepted as the standard of care.