Lung cancer screening with low-dose helical CT: results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)

After long debate about the worth of screening for lung cancer, and even about the merits of doing a randomized trial to address the issue, initial results from the first large-scale randomized controlled trial ever to show a reduction in lung cancer mortality associated with screening were announced to the public last November 4.1 The story behind this historical first is informative, and the editor of the Journal of Medical Screening played a role in that story. But more of that later.